Calhoun City native Keith Cobb told a group at the Calhoun City Library Thursday night that his memoir was essentially “a book of gratitude for all the help I had along the way.”
Cobb talked about “Out of the Red Clay Hills” to a group of more than 30.
Cobb, who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, told stories from his book about growing up in Calhoun City, people who influenced him along the way and how much the town means to him.
Keith Cobb
Cobb said it took him four writes to write the book, most was done at the dining table of their part time home in Calhoun City.
Cobb and his wife, the former Dot Hill, also a Calhoun City native, bought the former Frances Mallory home where they stay while visiting Calhoun.
“I’d get inspired to write here,” he said.
The title of the book is a story in itself. Cobb said he had several titles in mind, but kept going back to something he heard at a political rally in Pittsboro more than 50 years ago.
“Jesse Yancy Jr. was running for district attorney and stood up to address the crowd. ‘Folks, this ain’t no city slicker from Memphis or Jackson or some high falutin’ fast talking lawyer from New Albany. This is just a poor old country boy, born and bred in these red clay hills right here in Calhoun County.’”
Cobb attended school at Calhoun City and said it was as fine an education as he could have gotten anywhere in the country.
He named several people from Calhoun City who helped in his education and shaping his character.
Among them were Frances Mallory, Dr. Carter Dobbs, Irene Denton, Josh Adams and Minnie Lee Pryor.
“I loved it here,” he said, “But I had an itch to do something else.”
He went on to attend Southern Miss, and then went to work with KPMG in Jackson, in later years at Alamo Rent a Car and then other things.
“Dot and I have traveled to 75 countries and all 50 states, largely because of my grounding here.”
And he attributes good luck as well.
He talked about famous people he had met such as Margaret Thatcher and Tom Clancy and Elvis Presley in his younger years.
He said the band he belonged to in high school, The Dixieland Band, which included Hal Reese, played in the Mid-South Talent Show in Memphis and met Elvis backstage.
Cobb also praised his parents– Bayne and Frances Cobb, and the work ethic they instilled in him at a young age.
Cobb said when he was around 12 years old, he worked as a receptionist in the summer for Flora Mae Wilson at Mississippi Valley gas for $2 a day.
He also reminisced about raising chickens.
His parents brought him 50 baby chicks to raise, and it was a miserable job he said. He said after he raised them, they caught and killed them all and took them to Calder’s Grocery on the square where he sold them and then had to split the money with his parents, learning his first lesson in dividing the profits.
The next year, he decided to go at it on his own and went to the Co-Op and bought enough tomato plants for two rows. He said after harvest he and his sister Sandy (Vance) pulled them around town in a little red wagon selling them and then house to house.
Cobb said his book is essentially broken up in three parts– his early life in Calhoun City, his career, and his interests.
Cobb said there are three copies of his book at the Calhoun City library which can be checked out.
The program was sponsored by Friends of the Library.