Tag Archives: kennett

Pictures from home

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Regular readers will know that I grew up in Kennett, Missouri, and lived there until 1984. A great place to be from, if you catch my drift. The landscape is so flat you can see the curve of the earth. And the crop chemicals made for spectacular sunsets. But I never thought of the area as beautiful… until I stumbled across some photos by mshhoward. It appears he has enhanced the images a bit but I could be wrong on that. Doesn’t matter. They’re really striking.

I’ve emailed asking for an interview to find out more about the photographer and his work. Watch this space.

“This is not really an Obama area.”

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I grew up in Kennett, Missouri, the county seat of Dunklin County. So when I heard the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a front-page story (by Todd C. Frankel) about Bootheel politics, I headed for the paper’s website to check it out.

I wasn’t really surprised to learn than Dunklin County was Obama’s worst showing in the primary. Just 18 percent.

But then I was heartened to learn that the Obama campaign has two office in the county and that Sheryl Crow’s momma and daddy volunteer for O.

They have a Republican campaign HQ but if I read the story right it’s a first for Dunklin County.

The story quotes Ronnie Johnson who’s “voting for McCain. Or rather, against Obama.”

“He is reluctant to explain this at first — “You don’t want to know why,” he says.”

“The others on the porch goad him. And Johnson, a lanky 20-year-old white man who works as a meatcutter at a grocery store, starts to talk about an issue that has persisted throughout the campaign: race.”

“It is not just that Obama is black, Johnson says. He has heard that Obama is Muslim. (Obama is Christian.) He also has heard rumors that Obama refuses to salute the American flag, and that Obama has promised that black men will have more rights than white men. (Independent fact-checking groups say these rumors
are false.)”

“He’s white,” Johnson says.

The story concludes with a couple of demographics:

“Dunklin is one of the poorest counties in Missouri. The unemployment rate hovers near 9 percent. More than a quarter of the population lives in poverty.”

Not sure we’ll see this clipping on the Chamber of Commerce bulletin board.

Sheryl Crow’s momma is an artist

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Our Man in Kennett, Charles Jolliff, shares pix from this year’s Delta Fair, including this landscape entry in the art competition. I know zip about painting but this looks pretty damned good to me. Like to see what got the blue ribbon.
Bernicecrowpainting

The artist is Bernice Crow (Sheryl’s momma). Talent seems to run deep and wide in that family.

PS: I believe this is my favorite photo from Charles’ set.

KBOA 830

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In an earlier post I wondered about some recent move affecting the radio station I worked at many years ago. Our friend Jeff pointed us to a post on a radio message board:   

"Eagle Bluff Enterprises has received FCC permission to move KOTC from Kennett, Missouri to Memphis, Tennessee.  KOTC (830 AM) signed on in July 1947 as KBOA.  KOTC went silent on 6-1-08.  The justification for the STA was "The station has been temporarily turned off pending format changes and equipment repairs".  After the move, KOTC will diplex its 10 KW signal from a tower shared with WHBQ, 560 AM, in Memphis."

When I worked at KBOA the frequency (a daytime clear channel) was 830. When consolidation hit there was a series of call letter/frequency shuffles I was never interested enough to try to sort out.

I think they moved the KBOA calls to a frequency (105.5) licensed to Piggott, Arkansas, but operating in Kennett, MO. The 830 freq was assigned some newer, local (Kennett) calls (KOTC).

The KBOA I knew and loved died long ago. And it was nice to read some kind words about KBOA830.com. Thanks to all.