MID-SOUTH MEMORIES

25 years ago — 1996

For Janis Jean White, tenacity was a way of life. Ms. White, an attorney, died of cancer Monday at her home. She was 48. Ms. White, an honor student, was one of three Black students to integrate and later graduate from Holly Springs High School in 1966. One of Ms. White’s sisters, Agnes M. Henderson, said the decision to be one of the first students to integrate a school was tough, but the family stood by Ms. White. ”She stood for that cause,” Henderson said. ”It was definitely hard on the family, but it was the principle of it.” It was that strength that led Ms. White to eventually practice law, her sister said.

50 years ago — 1971

Julie Nixon Eisenhower last night gave her version of President Nixon’s much-discussed “Southern strategy,” which, she said, amounts simply to “treating the South as a part of the nation.” The president’s daughter and her husband, David Eisenhower, captivated about 600 cheering Republicans attending the Southern GOP Conference during a one-hour stay at the Holiday Innrivermont.

75 years ago — 1946

Far from the North Pole, where he runs his busy factory for making Christmas toys for good little girls and good little boys, Santa Claus set up shop in Memphis yesterday — the warehouse from which he will distribute heaping Christmas baskets to the city’s needy families again this year. You couldn’t see the jolly old gentleman with the applered cheeks and the “little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly,” but you could feel his presence in the big upstairs room at 103 South Court where volunteer workers were streaming in with cases of canned goods and food of many kinds.

100 years ago — 1921

FLORENCE, Ala. – The industrial possibilities of Muscle Shoals are practically unlimited, Thomas A. Edison said here tonight. It was at the end of a busy day spent with Henry Ford in a resurvey of the government property. “Mr. Ford’s offer is substantial,” said Mr. Edison, “and beats what anybody else would bid. The government should accept it.”

125 years ago — 1896

The primary children of St. Mary’s Episcopal School entertained their parents and friends yesterday with a program of recitations. The little ones seemed thoroughly familiar with their subject and performed admirably.

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL FILES Dec. 13, 1984: Bruce Springsteen performs at the Mid-south Coliseum on the first night of back-to-back sold-out shows. The concert opened as Springsteen bounded onto stage with a manic rendition of "Born in the U.S.A." and the crowd went crazy.