MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
Heather Whitestone was depressed and had no social life during her reign as Miss America. But she didn’t want to go out at first when an aide to Newt Gingrich asked her for a date. Then she told her chaperone about the offer from John Mccallum. “I told her I was too busy being Miss America, and I don’t have time for dates,” Whitestone recalled. “But (she) said, ‘Heather, trust me. It took a lot of guts for any guy to ask Miss America out.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ ” It turned out more than OK. They’re engaged. Whitestone, in an interview in Wednesday’s Birmingham Post-herald, said she grew depressed around January, midway through her year as Miss America. ”I didn’t really have a boyfriend,” said Whitestone, 22. “I was on the road with my traveling companion every day, and the reason I was so depressed was because I had no social life.” She met Mccallum, 25, in March, and they didn’t kiss for six months because “I wanted to get to know his heart first,” she said.
50 years ago — 1970
ATHENS, Ga. — Feel like roaring with laughter? It probably means you’re feeling superior, says a University of Georgia professor who’s been studying laughter and its causes for 15 years. “There are countless theories about what makes a person respond with laughter to a message and what leaves another person unsmiling,” said Dr. Charles F. Gruner, an associate professor in the speech department. Gruner said he had come to one central conclusion in his studies: That a comfortable feeling of superiority actually produces the chuckles.
75 years ago — 1945 WASHINGTON — A nutritional program designed to raise dietary — and hence health — standards of the Nation is under discussion among Administration officials. Such a program might involve Government subsidization of food consumption by families without sufficient income to buy an adequate diet.
100 years ago — 1920
Mayor Paine has called a conference of the law enforcing authorities of Memphis and Shelby County to discuss the best plan of concerted action whereby the interests of the law-abiding citizens of the community may be served and members of the lawless element taught that this is an unsafe field for the operations. Aroused by the series of daring crimes which have been committed here recently, and fearing that the crime wave which has swept the country may grow to dangerous proportions in Memphis if unchecked, the mayor has arranged a meeting of city and county officials in his office this afternoon at 4 o’clock.