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Tidbits
ALABAMA —During World War I, the Tennes
see Coal and Iron Co., bought a large tract of land
that included present-day Chickasaw (pop. 6,364),
north of Mobile. The company constructed a ship
yard and built a town, which included a community
center and health clinic for its workers. In 1946, the
town was privatized and incorporated.
ARKANSAS —When Wesley White of Hartford
(pop. 772) reeled in an 80-pound flathead catfish on
the Arkansas River in October 1989, he landed the
state record for the largest flathead caught with a
rod and reel.
FLORIDA —At 96, Dorothy Geeben, mayor of
Ocean Breeze Park (pop. 463), is believed to be the
nation’s oldest mayor and is so well liked that she
ran unopposed in 2004 for re-election to a two-year
term and won.
GEORGIA —Born a slave in Thomasville (pop.
18,162) in 1856, Henry O. Flipper was the first Af
rican-American to graduate from the United States
Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
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Did You Know...
KENTUCKY —The 1897 L&N Railroad Bridge over
the Oik) River reopened in 2003 as a pedestrian bridge
linking Newport (pop. 17,048) and Cincinnati, Ohio. Al
though its official name is the Newport Southhank Bridge,
locals call it the "Purple People Bridge" because of its bright
lavender color.
LOUISIANA— On D-Day,June 6,1944,156,000 Al
lied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, most
carried ashore by Higgins boats, designed by Andrew Jack
son Higgins and built in New Orleans. President Eisenhow
er called Higgins the man “who won the war for us.”
MISSISSIPPI —H.A. and Margret Rey, creators of Cu
rious George, are among 1,200 children's book authors and
illustrators who donated their anginal manuscnpts and art
work to tire de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg
(pop. 44,779).
NORTH CAROLINA —SheIby (pop. 19,477)
is hog-wild about hvermush, a meat concoction bom dur
ing hard times and made from pig liver and head parts and
commeal. Mayor Ted Anderson proclaims hvermush “die
world's most perfect food.”
SOUTH CAROLINA— The first boll weevil
found in the state, pre-1925 farm equipment, and
local history and Cherokee Indian artifacts are show
cased at the Pendleton (pop. 2,966) District Agricul
tural Museum.
TENNESSEE —Since 1912, Dyer's Burgers in Mem
phis has fried its hamburgers in the same grease,
which is strained and recycled daily and added to
when needed. The grease is so prized that when the
restaurant relocated to Beale Street in 1998, the vat
of fat traveled with its own police escort.
VIRGINIA —Singer Kate Smith, bom in 1909 in
Greenville (pop. 886), made Irving Berlin’s God Bless
America an overnight sensation when she sang the
song for the first time on her weekly radio show to
commemorate Armistice Day (Nov. 11) 1938. Berlin
wrote the anthem in 1918 and revised it in 1938 as a
“peace” song in the face of spreading war in Europe.
WEST VlßGlNlA —Sistersville (pop. 1,588)
hosts an annual Oil and Gas Festival commemorating the
discovering of oil in Tyler County in die early 1890 s.