MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1998
JACKSON, Tenn. – Giants of five decades of country and rock music paid a songful tribute Friday to Carl Perkins, with Wynonna Judd at one point noting, “Y’know, the Beatles were in his fan club.” Former Beatle George Harrison, rockabilly’s Jerry Lee Lewis and country stars Garth Brooks, Ricky Skaggs and Billy Cyrus led a list of luminaries at the overflow funeral at R.E. Womack Chapel on the campus of Lambuth University.
50 years ago — 1973 WASHINGTON – Agreement has been reached to end the Vietnam War — the longest in America’s history — with a cease-fire effective Saturday night and complete United States withdrawal coinciding with the release of all war prisoners, President Nixon told the nation last night.
75 years ago — 1948 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Justice Glenn Terrell, 70-year-old sage of the Florida Supreme Court, outlined his formula Friday for a happy marriage and granted a divorce to a couple who could not qualify. In granting James Chestnut, 70, a divorce from his wife, Norma, 46, Terrell said: “A man that is tactless enough to hang around the house and stimulate a domestic spat when he might take refuge in the office, shop, field or grove, is minus what it takes to steer the home on an even keel.”
100 years ago — 1923 WASHINGTON – A bill designed to “prevent hasty and foolish marriages and to make divorce more difficult,” sponsored by the general Federation of Women’s Clubs, was introduced today by Senator Capper, Republican, Kansas, together with a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to legalize federal marriage and divorce laws. Marriage licenses would have to be applied for and posted in courts two weeks ahead of the ceremony under the bill, and applicants would have to present certificate of health and normal mentality.
125 years ago — 1898
HELENA, Ark. – The river situation at this place is beginning to be alarming, owing to the rapid rise, the prospect of more water and the unimproved condition of the levee. At the Williamson place, about three miles below here, where the crevasse occurred last spring, there is still an opening of about 200 feet, through which the water will come if the river gets five feet higher, and this much water is predicted by Observer Miles. A great deal of unpicked cotton will be ruined.