Pensacola Independent News

LETTERS & OPINIONS | August 17, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 33
(Left Behind Part 3: Education)
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BE LIKE MURPHREE, NOT BILBO

I was born in Jackson, Miss., in 1937, and raised on a hill farm in Madison County in an area that is now the city of Ridgeland. My wife Sandy grew up in Tupelo, where we later lived for many years.

I’m old enough to remember “The Man”—former Mississippi Gov. Theodore Bilbo.

My maternal grandfather was Dennis H. Murphree of Calhoun County, Miss. His father originated a small weekly newspaper called the Monitor Herald in Pittsboro, Miss., the county seat, in 1900, but lived only a couple of years thereafter.

As the oldest of three children, my grandfather, Murphree, dropped out of public school to work full-time in the newspaper office. At the time, he was about 14-years-old, and never acquired any further formal education.

In 1912, he was elected to the Mississippi House and represented Calhoun County for years. In 1923, Murphree moved his family to Jackson, where he established a general insurance agency, as his primary means of support.

In 1925, in yet another endeavor, he offered the traveling public a rather unique experience. It consisted of a special train he named “The Know Mississippi Better Train,” which hosted a party of somewhere around 300 people touring a pre-planned route of his choice around the countryside for two weeks or so. These tours continued, except during World War II, until a couple of years after his death in 1949. My mother, his oldest daughter, was involved with him in this project for many years.

He remained involved in Mississippi politics throughout his lifetime.

Following his move to Jackson, he soon campaigned for and was elected lieutenant governor. He made three successful campaigns for that office.

Murphree ran for governor twice against two of the state’s political giants—Hugh White and Bilbo. In both cases, he faced not only his opponents political machines and minions, but some other unusual and heavy odds.

Although he never was elected to the governorship, he served as governor twice, after the governors died in office.

He ran against Bilbo in 1927, the year of the great flood, which involved him directly in the disaster for a period of six weeks and more during the most critical time of the campaign. Not only did he carry out his duties as chief executive of the state, he even personally went about the flooded areas on his own large vessel rescuing stranded victims of the flood. He lost the race by a narrow margin to Bilbo.

My grandfather was widely respected and admired as a man of great integrity and principle. His many years as the Senate president and lieutenant governor amply illustrated and reflected his abilities and leadership qualities.

He was apparently devoid of a vengeful or judgmental streak but his disapproval and lack of respect for Bilbo was profound. Because he expected principal in people, my grandfather violated the long-established tradition wherein the outgoing governor rode in the inaugural parade in the same automobile. Rather than ride with Bilbo and risk any assumptions that he approved of him in any manner, he insisted upon, and did in fact, ride in a separate vehicle!

I remember my grandfather quite well and enjoyed tagging along with him on many fishing trips and to hunt big ol’ fox squirrels in the big river bottomlands along the Mississippi.

His Sunday picnic trips with all the extended family to visit the Vicksburg Battlefield were grand occasions, and always we were spellbound as we stood on the site or sites where his own father’s Calhoun County Volunteers were dug in and listened to his accounts of those times.

Murphree was a devoted father, grandfather and friend to many, and a man of great faith. He was not given to swearing, and as a matter of fact I recall only one time when he crossed this line within my earshot. Although I was very young, I remember it as quite funny at the time.

The occasion arose as my grandfather and others were gathering in the parking area behind the Walthall Hotel to make the drive to South Mississippi to attend the funeral of Bilbo. I overheard someone with knowledge of my grandfather’s distaste for Bilbo the person, express that he couldn’t believe Murphree would attend Bilbo’s funeral. Without hesitation my grandfather replied “I just need to make certain the son-of-a-bitch is dead!”

As a relatively young man of 61 he was stricken with a stroke in the Fall of 1948, while we were on one of our frequent visits to the little vacation house he had built in Pittsboro in 1939. His death occurred Feb. 9, 1949. Some years back, I made a gift of the Pittsboro property in his memory to the Calhoun County Genealogical Society. Through their tireless efforts, the house has been refurbished and designated The Dennis H. Murphree Museum, and serves as the repository of the records belonging to the society.

This guest viewpoint was written by William W. Ford III, a Pensacola resident and retired Mississippi attorney.

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