To mark my 20th year of being a cartoonist in Mississippi, I thought I’d dig out 20 tales from the past two decades. Some are funny. Some are serious. All tell the story of how I came to fall in love with this sometimes frustrating but always fascinating state we live in.
Galloway church was full. It was Wednesday afternoon and I was doing my usual dog and pony slide show. After a few cartoons of local politicians, I let the audience know a little kernel of truth: I’m not afraid of politicians but I am a little bit of their wives. I told about one former politician’s wife who chewed me a new one for drawing her husband’s teeth too big (honest to God.) They’re divorced now, so I won’t name names. But my story did get a pretty good laugh.
When the room quieted back down, a lady stood up in the back and boomed, “Don’t worry, I love the beret!”
It was Pat Fordice.
I nearly dove under the table my projector was on. The room erupted in laughter.
That’s the day I got to know the former First Lady. Pat Fordice had a fantastic sense of humor. And proved it over and over again.
When Kirk died, I drew him getting into Heaven by threatening the whip St. Peter’s ass. Now there is an unwritten rule in the South — you only say nice things about people when they die. For example, if the Devil died, you’d say, “he had a way of warming up the room.” So I was besieged with phone messages saying I was rude scum. The seventh message on my machine was Pat Fordice. She said, “the family loved the cartoons and wanted it to hang in his former office as a memorial.” I called back the other people and made a raspberry sound.
Mrs. Fordice wrote the foreword for my first book (Marsha Barbour did my second and Governor William Winter will for the 20th Anniversary collection). I asked her what she wanted — she said, “There are a few original cartoons I’d like.” They hang in Dan Fordice’s airplane hanger to this day.
I’ve gotten to know the Fordice family and think the world of them. Dan once brought up the cartoons while as we were flying over the Reservoir. He flipped the T-6 Texan upside down and said, “Let’s talk about the cartoons you used to draw about my dad.” It was at that moment, I realized the son of someone I made fun of had packed my parachute.
Thankfully Dan and his brother Hunter have their mom’s sense of humor. I once spoke at a Vicksburg Rotary club and they were in the back of the room with their arms crossed. I said, “I’m about to get my butt kicked, aren’t I?” They laughed as I looked for the exit. (Dan does a lot for veterans. He has chronicled WW2 pilots’ lives with amazing oral histories and now is helping current warriors with the Warrior Bonfire Project. He also has an amazing P-51D Mustang fighter modeled after the late Cary Salter’s Charlotte’s Chariot. It’s the plane that I drew on the back of my book Chainsaws and Casseroles.) Dan has passion.
I’ve also written the foreword for Dan and Hunter’s sister Angie Jordan’s biography, “We End In Joy.” I also look forward to joining her for a book signing November 27th at Lorelei Books in Vicksburg. Angie has a new novel out titled “The Bridge to Home.”
Angie is, as my grandmother said, “Good people.”
Toward the end of her life, Pat called me. We talked about her illness and battle. She fought with incredible courage. She also did a lot of heal her family after a very public scandal. She also had a successful radio show and continued to represent her state well.
I’m glad Mrs. Fordice stood up that day and made the crowd laugh at my expense. My life was made better for it.