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MISSISSIPPI CONNECTIONS 2

© Dorothy Hill

I remember several years ago seeing a bumper sticker that read "The South Will Rise Again." Who would have thought that the day would come when the President of the United States would be from Arkansas, the Vice-President would be from Tennessee, and directly opposed to them would be a Senate Majority Leader from Mississippi (Trent Lott). Who says bumper stickers can't foretell the future.

Who would have thought back in 1969 that a "former tadpole from Mississippi" would become a star first on television and then later in the movies. That star was none other that Kermit the Frog. Kermit's creator and alter ego, Jim Henson, was a Mississippi boy.

Kermit isn't the only entertainer with Mississippi connections. In 1996 LIFE magazine listed Oprah Winfrey as one of the Top 50 most influential "baby boomers in the nation. That same month TIME magazine listed her as one of the 25 most influential people in America. That isn't bad for a girl born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Others with Mississippi connections who have made a name for themselves as actors are Dana Andrews, Morgan Freeman, Cynthia Geary, Anthony Herrera, Eddie Hodges, James Earl Jones, Diane Ladd, Gerald McRaney, Stella Stevens, Ray Walston, and Sela Ward.

Mississippi has produced more than just entertainers. Astronauts Fred Haise, Ronald McNair, and Richard Truly called it home. Explorer, aviation pioneer, and Mississippi native Alton Parker was the first American to set foot on the continent of Antarctica. He was also the first American to fly a plane over it. Mississippi was also home at one time to motivational speaker Zig Ziglar and nationally known food critic Craig Claiborne. The nation's number one Civil War historian Shelby Foote was born in Greenville, Mississippi.

You hear people talk about how Mississippi is last in things, but did you know that the PTA (Parent-Teachers Association) started in Crystal Springs, Mississippi in 1909 or that the 4-H Club started as a club for boys in Holmes County in 1907. Mississippi was also the birthplace of the Order of the Eastern Star in 1847. The first African-American United States Senator was Hiram Revels from Mississippi.

Picture this. It was the summer of 1894 and it was hot in Vicksburg, Mississippi. A young merchant named Joseph A. Biedenharn hit upon an idea. Everyone liked coming to his store to buy the cold fountain soda that he sold. But what about those who lived in the rural areas? They didn't have access to that good fountain soda that he sold. To solve that problem, he decided to put the soda in a bottle and sell the bottles so that everyone could have the drink no matter where they lived. That popular soda that he was the first to bottle was Coca-Cola.