Cannon Has Built A Car Empire
By Becky Gillette Michael Joe Cannon started working at the age of eight bagging up peanuts and selling them on Saturdays. Then he ran a snowball stand and later a pool hall. At the age of 14, he started helping his father at a Calhoun City used car lot housed in a 12’ x […]
George King
Delta Council 2017-18 president By Becky Gillette | Photography by Rory Doyle George W. King Jr., the new president of Delta Council, doesn’t draw a line between work and play. He considers farming his primary hobby. He also likes to bicycle, and often enjoys riding along Lake Washington. “When you ride early in the morning, […]
A Century of the Cotton Business— The Chassaniol Family
Important part of the cotton kingdom By MARK H. STOWERS • Photography by Timothy Ivy Cotton has been king in Mississippi since the early 1800s but has seen its reign diminish since the late 1980s. The majestic crop has seen a rise in its ranks with an increase in acres planted the past decade. For […]
Dr. LouAnn Woodward
Leads Mississippi to better health By Becky Gillette Dr. LouAnn Woodward, 53, grew up on a farm in Carroll County south of Grenada. She and her brother Holland were raised in the same home where their father, Bruce Heath—the youngest of six children–grew up. Her paternal grandmother, known as Miss Onyx, lived with them. Her […]
Patrick Johnson- Tunica Farmer
By Becky Gillette • Photography by Austin Britt Patrick Johnson and his father, Pat, have traditionally planted a lot of cotton on their farm in Tunica County. Even while cotton acreage in the state decreased sharply in recent years due to low prices, the Johnsons did not sell their cotton equipment. That puts them in […]
Talbot Brooks
Takes on Global Challenges at DSU Geospatial Center By Becky Gillette • Photography by Rory Doyle An old saying in real estate is that it is all about “location, location, location.” The same thing might be said about Geospatial Information Technologies (GIT), which use Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), remote sensing and […]
CEO Bryan Thornhill
Oversees major expansion at Bank of Commerce By Becky Gillette Photography by Johnny Jennings Some people work in order to have time off to do what they love. Others, like Bryan Thornhill, president and CEO Bank of Commerce in Greenwood, love work so much that their job is also their […]
Sen. Lydia Chassaniol
Cooking up good things for tourism statewide By Becky Gillette Photography by Johnny Jennings Sen. Lydia Graves Chassaniol won the first real political race she entered when she ran for the Mississippi Senate in 2007 after the death of Sen. Robert G. “Bunky” Huggins. Tapping young Republicans to help her campaign, the educator who had […]
Kirk Graves
State Bank & Trust started in Rosedale in 1898 and is now a $1-billion institution By Becky Gillette Photography by Greg Campbell The Valley Bank, which is now State Bank & Trust Company, had modest beginnings in Rosedale in 1898. By 1985, it had grown to only $13 million in total assets. When Stewart […]
Harry Simmons- Grows not just catfish, but jobs in the Delta
By Becky Gillette Photography by Roy Meeks & Matthew Wood About 40 years ago, Harry Simmons began growing catfish as a way to diversify his income from row crop farming in Humphreys and Yazoo Counties. Through the years, his operation grew and became vertically integrated in 1982, by establishing a catfish processing facility. This expansion […]