Curtis Wilkie’s shoes will be difficult to fill. If you don’t know who Curtis Wilkie is, here’s a small taste: Curtis recently retired as a Fellow of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi after a long career as both a journalist, author and Southern political observer.  For many years, he was a journalist for The Boston Globe and he covered everything from the 1976 Jimmy Carter Presidential campaign to the bombing of the Marines’ barrack in Beirut, Lebanon. He is, in true Southern tradition, a master storyteller and has one of the best voices this side of Morgan Freeman. There isn’t much that he hasn’t seen or done. He drew a map of the events during the 1962 Ole Miss riot and interviewed Martin Luther King, Jr.  two weeks before his death. He drank beer with Billy Carter while Jimmy taught Sunday school. He’s a brilliant teacher, father, grandfather and friend. He’s also one of the people in Mississippi I look up to the most.

Godspeed in retirement Curtis. Look forward to seeing you again soon.

READ: A finale to Curtis Wilkie’s final act: Esteemed Mississippi journalist retires from teaching 

Marshall Ramsey, a nationally recognized editorial cartoonist, shares his cartoons and travels the state as Mississippi Today’s Editor-At-Large. He’s also host of a weekly statewide radio program and a television program on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and is the author of several books. Marshall is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and a 2019 recipient of the University of Tennessee Alumni Professional Achievement Award.