Twenty years ago, Tom Ball (then editor of The Starkville Daily News) and I went to Atlanta to attend the Georgia Cracker Crumble at the Omni - an event sponsored by the Georgia Press Association to support journalism scholarships in the Peach State.
The Cracker Crumble showed me that politicians and the press - a group which normally has the same basic relationship as feisty dogs and fire hydrants - could co-exist for at least one night, have a little fun and raise some money for Mississippi journalism scholarships in the process.
The idea Tom and I brought home - thanks to a lot of good people in journalism, politics and the business community over the last two decades - continues to bear fruit today.
The voice of
business
This time around, Mississippi Economic Council President and CEO Blake Wilson will be the main course as the Mississippi Press Association "roasts" him at the 20th anniversary MPA Education Foundation Celebrity Roast on Jan. 28 at the Jackson Hilton Hotel.
Wilson, whose dirty little secret as a mover and shaker for the Mississippi business community is that he's a recovering journalist, has for a number of years been a rainmaker in helping the MPA make the roast event a success. Blake is expected to give at least as good as he gets during the evening.
There's an impressive lineup of hot air blowing into the Hilton to take shots at Wilson - who is truly a nice guy and one of the most influential voices in Mississippi business circles.
A rogue's galler
Taking aim at Wilson will be a rogue's gallery of high quality windbaggery: Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, Higher Education Commission Hanks Bounds, Mississippi Power Company president and CEO Anthony Topazi, State Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, Godwin Group chairman and senior partner Danny Mitchell and Clarion-Ledger Editorial Cartoonist Marshall Ramsey.
Wilson lives in Brandon with his wife, Ann, a public school teacher. They have three children.
Other honorees during the 20-year history of the roast have included Sen. Thad Cochran, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Gov. Haley Barbour, Bryant, Topazi, the late U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery, former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson, and the late Jerry Clower.
Wilson will be the second roastee to receive the S. Gale Denley Memorial Journalism Award. The MPA and MPAEF boards of directors voted in 2009 to rename the foundation award in memory of the longtime educator and publisher of the Calhoun County Journal.
Denley, my closest friend and a remarkable man, died in 2008. Gale Denley would have loved to have had a shot to gigging Blake Wilson in front of a crowd - as he often did on the porch of our fair cabin each summer.
For additional information, contact MPA event coordinator Kimberly Haydu by email or call 601-981-3060.
Contact Sid Salter at (601) 961-7084 or e-mail ssalter@clarionledger.com. Visit his blog at clarionledger.com. His talk radio show, On Deadline with Sid Salter, is broadcast on the SuperTalk Mississippi network.
