WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris moved swiftly to lock up Democratic delegates behind her campaign for the White House after President Joe Biden stepped aside amid concerns from within their party that he would be unable to defeat Republican Donald Trump.

Biden’s exit Sunday, prompted by Democratic worries over his fitness for office, was a seismic shift to the presidential contest that upended both major political parties’ carefully honed plans for the 2024 race.

Aiming to put weeks of intraparty drama over Biden’s candidacy behind them, prominent Democratic elected officials, party leaders and political organizations quickly lined up behind Harris in the hours after Biden announced he was dropping his reelection campaign.

Biden’s departure frees his delegates to vote for whomever they choose. Harris, whom Biden backed after ending his candidacy, is thus far the only declared candidate and was working to quickly secure endorsements from a majority of delegates.

Additional endorsements Monday, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, left a dwindling list of potential rivals to Harris.

Winning the nomination is only the first item on a staggering political to-do list for her after Biden’s decision to exit the race, which she learned about on a Sunday morning call with the president. If she’s successful at locking up the nomination, she must also pick a running mate and pivot a massive political operation to boost her candidacy instead of Biden’s with just over 100 days until Election Day.

On Sunday afternoon, Biden’s campaign formally changed its name to Harris for President, reflecting that she is inheriting his political operation of more than 1,000 staffers and a war chest that stood at nearly $96 million at the end of June. It got bigger by Monday morning: Campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said Harris had raised $49.6 million in donations in the first 15 hours after Biden’s endorsement.

RELATED: Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi endorses Harris for president

Harris spent much of Sunday surrounded by family and staff, making more than 100 calls to Democratic officials to line

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• Robert St. John says one of the more unique and unusual pleasures of his life is sitting in the stillness of one of his restaurant dining rooms at dawn before anyone arrives.

One of the more unique and unusual pleasures of my life is sitting in the stillness of one of our restaurant dining rooms at dawn before anyone arrives. I like to go in early, before anyone is there, and just “be” in the space. There is something about the solitude of that act in those rooms that inspires me.

It is quiet and peaceful. Occasionally the cleaning crew might be heard in the kitchen, or an early prep team member may be getting ready for lunch service in the back of the house, but there is something satisfying and tranquil about a restaurant dining room in the morning.

I wasn’t always an early riser. Restaurant ownership made me that way. In my teens and early twenties, I could sleep until noon, and often did. In college I had to set three alarm clocks and place them in different places across the room so I would have to get out of the bed to turn them off to make an 8 a.m. class. I don’t sleep that soundly anymore. When I opened the first restaurant at 26 years old, I began my days by opening the kitchen. That’s probably when I first started realizing how peaceful a restaurant can be when no one is around.

Typically, restaurants are a bustling mass of energy. Hopefully restaurants are a bustling mass of energy. That is always the dream at the start. We have been blessed to have been on the plus side of that column most of the time over the past 37 years. But that is also what makes the 180-degree change in atmosphere so unique. It’s not dissimilar to an empty sports arena the day before a big game. There is anticipation in the air, but no hint of what’s to come.

When I sit or walk around the dining rooms in the early morning, I think about all the events that we’ve been blessed to have been a part of for almost four decades. The daily gift given to a restaurateur is that he or she gets to host birthday parties, graduation celebrations, wedding rehearsal dinners, wedding receptions, celebrations of promotions and positive life events. We are also there after funerals and other meaningful and impactful occasions. I have never taken that responsibility lightly and have always been grateful to have been a part of people’s lives in meaningful moments.

An empty dining room at any other time of day is the opposite of peaceful and relaxing. It means business is slow and brings on the stress and burdens of ownership. One of the most sobering sites I have seen was when I was a Hospitality Management student at the University of Southern Mississippi a few years before I opened the first restaurant. I was with friends in the French Quarter of New Orleans on a bustling Saturday night. Every restaurant and bar was packed. We were walking from one place to another and passed a restaurant on Iberville with large-framed windows in the front. The dining room was empty. A lone man sat at a table with his head in his hands. It was one of the saddest and unnerving sites I had seen. I hung back, took it in, and vowed in that moment, that— when I opened my restaurant one day— I was going to do everything in my power to never be the guy sitting in a completely empty dining room on a Saturday night wondering what I could do to generate business.

There are a finite number of independent restaurateurs in the country. I count myself fortunate to be in that number. I also consider myself blessed that after 37 years, we are better— on all levels— than we have ever been in the past. Seriously, ever. A healthy business is the best Ambien. Though the restaurant business can be brutal and unforgiving. Many likely have a different morning mindset in their restaurant, today. I get it. I’ve been there. I feel for you. But for those of us who are armoring up every day and fighting the good fight, it’s pure joy, occasionally even in the trying times.

It’s not only the stillness of the room that is appealing to me, but also sitting in, and around, one’s creation that is significant. It’s being surrounded by a thousand thoughts, ideas, and bits of inspiration that started on a cocktail napkin or on countless pages of yellow legal pads. A room that now serves families and friends in times of celebration and sorrow, at one time, was nothing more than a fleeting thought or vague concept is something that keeps me inspired and moving forward.

These days if I sleep past 6:30 a.m. there’s a glitch in the matrix. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning. Although I am not one who craves solitude, I love my early mornings as they are the only period in my day that seems to be 100% mine. Lack of the organized chaos in the beehive that is a busy restaurant dining room offers time for reflection. In those moments of aloneness, I can breathe in the sweat and struggles of the past and feel doubly blessed. Mornings alone in the restaurant are a constant reminder that I live in a country that allows me to own and operate a business with relative freedom.

One of the more memorable early mornings over the course of the past several years was a morning I spent on the newly built patio at Crescent City Grill. It was 10 months into the pandemic, and we were due to open the space that evening. I’m not quite sure what felt different about it. Maybe because it was that the space was conceived in a time of uncertainty— April 2020— the worst time in the history of the restaurant business to be in the restaurant business. Maybe it was due to the many challenges our teams had faced over the preceeding months, from an unprecedented and crippling labor crisis to skyrocketing food and supply costs.

Sitting there in that space, in that moment, all those troubles seemed a world away. What I felt in that moment was gratitude.

The secret to my success, to the degree that there has been any success, is that— for all these years— I have surrounded myself with people who are smarter and more talented than me.

That is who I was grateful for that morning. The ones who were in the trenches trying to hold together a 400+ person restaurant group during a global pandemic. The ones who continued to pick up shifts when team members were sick or hunkered down at home. The ones that helped me keep all the irons in the fire, and the ones who helped me create that awesome space.

It took a few years for us to figure out the proper use for that patio space. There were many times it felt like that empty New Orleans restaurant with a lone owner years ago. But through perseverance, dedication, and the commitment of our team it is now a packed and thriving space. It is where I sit this morning in the stillness of the early day feeling ever grateful and more blessed than I deserve.

Onward.

#####

This Week’s Recipe: Crawfish Omelet with Horseradish Cream

This recipe is from the cookbook Mississippi Mornings, which was released in 2023.

INGREDIENTS

Omelet Filling:
2 TBSP Unsalted Butter
½ cup Yellow Onion, small dice
⅓ cup Bell Pepper, small dice
1 tsp Garlic, minced
2 tsp Creole Seasoning
1 tsp Kosher Salt
½ pound Crawfish Tails
1 cup Pepperjack Cheese, shredded
12 Eggs
2 TBSP Water
2 TBSP Half and Half
4 tsp Unsalted Butter for cooking omelets

Horseradish Cream:
1 cup Sour Cream
1 TBSP Mayonnaise
1 TBSP Prepared Horseradish
¼ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
½ tsp Lemon Juice
1 TBSP Fresh Chives, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

For the omelet filling:
Melt butter in a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion and bell pepper and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Stir in garlic, Creole seasoning and salt, continue to cook for 2 minutes. Stir in crawfish tails and cook for 3-4 more minutes until crawfish are thoroughly heated. Remove from heat.

For the Horseradish Cream:
Stir together all ingredients. Sauce can be made in advance and stored covered in the refrigerator for up to seven days.

Once the sauce and filling have been made, follow the instructions for preparing an omelet. Divide the filling and cheese into 4. Fill the omelets and top with the sauce.

Yield: 4 Omelets

Want more recipes like this? Purchase Mississippi Mornings here.

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• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said … “Be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods.” – Daniel 3:16, 18

The narrative of the manly courage and marvelous deliverance of these three holy children, or rather champions, is well calculated to engender in the minds of believers firmness and steadfastness in upholding the truth in the teeth of tyranny and in the very jaws of death. Here is a wonderful example especially for young Christians, teaching them that when it comes to faith in action they must never sacrifice their consciences. Lose everything rather than lose your integrity, and when everything is gone, still hold fast a clear conscience as the rarest jewel that can adorn the bosom of a mortal. Do not be guided by expediency but by divine authority. Follow the right at every hazard. When you see no obvious advantage, then walk by faith and not by sight. Honor God by trusting Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle. See whether He will be your debtor! See if He does not even in this life prove His word that “there is great gain in godliness with contentment,” and that for those who “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness . . . all these things will be added to you.”

Should it happen that in the providence of God you are a loser for conscience’s sake, you will find that if the Lord does not pay you back in the silver of earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in the gold of spiritual joy. Remember that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of what he possesses.

To wear an honest spirit, to have a heart void of offense, to have the favor and smile of God is greater riches than all the gold and diamonds in the world. “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.” An ounce of contentment is worth a ton of gold.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.

• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said … “Be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods.” – Daniel 3:16, 18

The narrative of the manly courage and marvelous deliverance of these three holy children, or rather champions, is well calculated to engender in the minds of believers firmness and steadfastness in upholding the truth in the teeth of tyranny and in the very jaws of death. Here is a wonderful example especially for young Christians, teaching them that when it comes to faith in action they must never sacrifice their consciences. Lose everything rather than lose your integrity, and when everything is gone, still hold fast a clear conscience as the rarest jewel that can adorn the bosom of a mortal. Do not be guided by expediency but by divine authority. Follow the right at every hazard. When you see no obvious advantage, then walk by faith and not by sight. Honor God by trusting Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle. See whether He will be your debtor! See if He does not even in this life prove His word that “there is great gain in godliness with contentment,” and that for those who “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness . . . all these things will be added to you.”

Should it happen that in the providence of God you are a loser for conscience’s sake, you will find that if the Lord does not pay you back in the silver of earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in the gold of spiritual joy. Remember that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of what he possesses.

To wear an honest spirit, to have a heart void of offense, to have the favor and smile of God is greater riches than all the gold and diamonds in the world. “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.” An ounce of contentment is worth a ton of gold.

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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In case you were wondering, a county coroner in Mississippi should not contract with their child to transport bodies. But a county can purchase gravel from the father of a supervisor, provided the supervisor doesn’t vote on the purchase.

Mississippi public officials struggling with issues such as giving their no-good son-in-law a government job or having a side hustle with a company that contracts with their agency can, anonymously to the public, request an ethics opinion. They don’t have to heed the advice, but following it can give them some legal cover if issues arise.

In years past, Mississippi officials have asked the appointed Ethics Commission for its opinion on myriad issues, including whether a city fireman can sell shoes to the police department (the opinion was no) or whether it was ethical for a school board member shacking up with a teacher to vote on renewing the teacher’s contract (also no, at least on the contract. Ethics didn’t opine on them shacking up).

Here’s a glance at some of the ethical dilemmas gnawing at public officials over the last couple of years and the advice the Ethics Commission gave them:

Son has ‘skills, strength and knowledge’ to haul bodies

An elected coroner in an unnamed county (again, ethics requests are anonymous to the public) wrote the commission that before he was elected, when he was a deputy coroner, his son was hired to transport bodies for the office.

“He has the skills, strength and knowledge of the job,” the coroner said of their son, and noted it’s hard to find anyone to be on call 24/7 to “haul human remains on short notice.”

But the commission cited state law that prohibits a public servant from obtaining monetary benefit for “any relative,” although it should be noted relative is a relative term in Mississippi’s nepotism code, generally only applying to spouses, children, siblings and parents of the public servant or the spouses of those relatives.

A violation is ‘virtually inevitable’

Apparently there is a school district in Mississippi all eaten up with nepotism, but trying to set it right and follow the law.

The ethics request states: “We currently have principals employed that have both spouses and children working at the school in which they are assigned. We are working to get into compliance with state law and Ethics opinions that were brought to our attention.” The request further pitched the idea that principals could recommend the relatives for jobs to the district’s superintendent, who could then recommend “an alternate administrator” to be in charge of the relatives.

But the commission said that, while state law does have a “step-aside” provision allowing a school board’s designee to recommend the principals’ relatives for jobs, “a violation of (state law) is virtually inevitable when one relative directly supervises another relative and creates an appearance of impropriety…”

Legislators trying to make a buck

A frequent theme of ethics requests over many years is from elected lawmakers asking if they can make money off state, local or federal government while serving or after leaving office.

Some recent opinions include:

• A legislator may not provide services to a company that serves as a subcontractor on a project funded by the Legislature. The lawmaker wanted to provide short-term housing for workers on a highway project.

• A former legislator is prohibited from having an interest in a contract funded by the Legislature within one year of leaving office.

• State law does not prohibit a legislator from being employed by the federal government or paid with federal money, the commission opined, but it also said, “However, the federal Hatch Act can prohibit a federal employee from being a candidate in a state partisan election.”

• A legislator, a year or more after leaving office, can work for a separate business owned by a law firm that contracts with state agencies if the former lawmaker is “paid only with segregated funds which were not appropriated by the Legislature.”

Other opinions

Some other opinions released by the Ethics Commission include:

• A city alderman may not participate in the permit application for the property adjacent to his home.

• A county jail administrator may not hire the sheriff’s daughter as a jailer, “even if the sheriff delegated his authority to his jail administrator.”

• A former state employee may not work for a private business in relation to contracts awarded by the agency when he or she was directly involved in those matters.

• A county may not purchase from a real estate company that employs a former supervisor who left office less than a year ago. (There are numerous requests from former supervisors wanting to work for companies with which their counties did business.)

• A business partially owned by a member of a state board may not receive a grant from the state agency when the grant program was authorized by that board.

• A county may do business with a company that employs the financially independent child of a supervisor, provided that supervisor fully recuses himself or herself from actions on the business.

• A county tax assessor’s spouse is allowed to be a contractor to the county board of supervisors.

It’s good to see politicians in Mississippi — a state not really known for ethical government — taking such a keen interest in good, clean government free of self dealing or nepotism. Let’s hope they followed the Ethics Commission’s advice.

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Word broke early Sunday afternoon that President Joe Biden was dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House, and it didn’t take long for Mississippi’s elected officials to begin responding.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves went to social media within minutes of the Democratic commander-in-chief’s announcement, using the opportunity to further his support of three-time GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump.

“Have you ever seen a politician so strong and talented he made his opponent quit in the middle of a race? I have: Donald Trump,” Reeves wrote. Reeves has long been a staunch ally of Trump, with the two exchanging endorsements over the past few election cycles.

Have you ever seen a politician so strong and talented he made his opponent quit in the middle of the race?

I have: Donald J. Trump

— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) July 21, 2024

The Mississippi Republican Party followed Reeves’ lead by sharing a new, pro-Trump commercial on social media, speculating that expected Democratic nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris “covered up Joe’s obvious mental decline” and has been underhandedly serving out Biden’s duties as president.

“Biden? Harris? Newsom? Clinton? Doesn’t matter. All the same disastrous Democrat policies giving us runaway inflation, escalating crime, and unsecured borders,” Mississippi GOP wrote, asking residents to vote for Trump and running mate JD Vance.

Biden? Harris? Newsom? Clinton?

Doesn’t matter. All the same disastrous Democrat policies giving us runaway inflation, escalating crime, and unsecured borders.

Electing @realDonaldTrump and @JDVance1 is the only answer to make America great again.

h/t @MAGAIncWarRoom pic.twitter.com/jF0pUgTfm9

— Mississippi GOP (@MSGOP) July 21, 2024

While the Mississippi Democratic Party has yet to issue an official statement, Sen. David Blount of Jackson gave props to Biden for the work he has done through three and a half years in the oval office.

“History will remember Joe Biden as a successful President who always put his country first. President Biden restored decency and statesmanship to our country. He stood up to Russia and those who sought to overthrow an election with violence,” Blount wrote. “All Mississippians who will

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This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office just four months before the election.

The decision comes after escalating pressure from Biden’s Democratic allies to step aside following the June 27 debate, in which the 81-year-old president trailed off, often gave nonsensical answers and failed to call out the former president’s many falsehoods.

Biden plans to serve out the remainder of his term in office, which ends at noon on Jan. 20, 2025.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote in a letter posted to his X account.

He did not immediately throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at its August convention in Chicago.

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• Hovis, an icon and heartthrob, was a mainstay on The Lawrence Welk Show. He later became the state director for U.S. Senator Trent Lott.

Before I was born, The Lawrence Welk Show was!

The Lawrence Welk Show began as a local program on KTLA, the flagship station of the Paramount Television Network, in Los Angeles on May 11, 1951. The big band leader had his musical variety show on this station for four years. Then, the program went national on ABC for the next 16 years, from 1955 to 1971. The program was syndicated from 1971 to 1982.

Everything stopped in my home when The Lawrence Welk Show aired on Saturday nights. My father’s favorite person on the program was not Lawrence Welk, but Jo Ann Castle. She was known as a honky-tonk pianist. When she performed, Dad would tell me to observe her hands. I didn’t know why, except maybe he wanted me to play the piano like her one day. Didn’t happen. Mom also had her favorites, The Lennon Sisters, Norma Zimmer, Jim Roberts, and the dance team of Cissy King and Bobby Burgess. However, when Guy Hovis became a part of the show’s line-up, he became her “very favorite,” maybe even her heartthrob.

I realize if you are younger than 50, you may not be familiar with The Lawrence Welk Show. It is known for its range of music, from polkas to classics; it has reached an audience of 40 million. It was a “wunnerful show” and brought fame for Guy Lee Hovis, Jr. that he could have never imagined.

How did he become a part of this well-loved program?

Beginnings in Tupelo

The city of Tupelo is known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley. But it is also the birthplace of Guy Hovis — two icons. Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, and Guy was born on September 24, 1941.

Guy’s father, Guy Lee Hovis, Sr., became an original member of the Mississippi Highway Patrol (created in 1938). His mother, Frances Filgo Hovis, had the reputation of being the “best cook in the world” and worked for thirty years as a secretary. The family were members of Harrisburg Baptist Church.

Guy Lee Hovis, Jr. developed a strong interest and love for music at home and through Harrisburg Baptist Church. Beginning at age five and throughout his formative years, he sang at church, in a gospel quartet, at weddings, at civic clubs, and other events. He is also a guitarist.

As a student at the University of Mississippi, he continued his musical interests while pursuing a degree in accounting, graduating in 1963. It was while at Ole Miss that he formed the musical group known as the Chancellors. The members were Allen Pepper, Trent Lott, and Gaylen Roberts. In 2010, the Ole Miss quartet reunited at the wedding of Guy’s daughter, Julie.

While at Ole Miss, Guy was in R.O.T.C. Six months after graduation, he enlisted in the military, and spent the next two years serving as an officer with the U.S. Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He became an instructor in the Artillery Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill and went to paratrooper school at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Towards the end of his military service, he entered a talent show and won. Hovis went on a six-week tour with the Fourth Army. On the tour, not only did he perform, but he served as the officer in charge. The show business bug had bitten.

Instead of pursuing show business further, he returned to college to obtain his master’s degree and prepare for the CPA exam. But, after the first semester, he decided to leave college and pursue performing.

“Ah-One, Ah-Two” for an Aspiring Performer

In 1974, Guy Hovis hosted The Lawrence Welk Show – Tribute to Famous Entertainers from 1974.

On the show, he referenced how he and Elvis Presley grew up in the same hometown. Guy told the story of how he got a close-up look at Elvis because his father was assigned to his security detail.

Guy recollects, “Now, let me tell you, he needed security. I’ve never seen anything like the way the girls reacted to Elvis. It was amazing: screaming, crying, trying to touch him. All the guys were really jealous. I hate to admit this, but I’m sure that experience had a little something to do with my eventual pursuit of show business.”

A friend, actor Tom Lester (“Eb” from Green Acres), advised Guy to go to Santa Monica and try to perform at a nightclub called The Horn, owned by Enrico (Ric) Ricardo. If you were an aspiring performer, The Horn was the place to showcase your talent. Jim Nabors, Jack Jones, and Steven Martin were some of the people who started there.

Eventually, he met David (King) Blaylock, and they became singing partners. Then, the producer of the CBS program, the Art Linkletter House Party Show, heard Guy sing and put him on the show. He appeared on about a dozen shows during 1967. When that ended, he and David formed “Guy & David.” They spent two years appearing on television shows and nightclubs across the country, and they recorded an album with ABC Records.

Also, while at The Horn, he met Ralna English and married in 1969. She became a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show. Then, on a Christmas program in 1970, Guy and Ralna sang a duet. The response from viewers was so positive that Mr. Welk invited Guy to join the Welk musical family. Guy and Ralna remained a duo on the show until their marriage ended in 1984 in a divorce.

In the following years, Guy and Ralna continued to perform at events throughout the United States, including The Welk Resort Theatre in Branson, Missouri, until 2020. In 1973, their show at the Mississippi State Fair at the Jackson Fairgrounds brought the largest crowd the fair had ever had. Senator Trent Lott, in the audience, was invited by Ralna to join her on stage to do some high kicks with her while she sang, “New York, New York.”

Patriot and Entertainer

In 1990, Guy moved back to Mississippi. It wasn’t long before he took on a full-time job as the director of the six state offices for Senator Trent Lott—a different world and experience from being a performer.

At the Monmouth Plantation in Natchez, on February 16, 2002, Guy Lee Hovis, Jr. married Sarah (Sis) Lundy Moorehead. In an interview from “Welknotes,” Guy shared, “Sis is taking a crash course in ‘Lawrence Welk’ because she didn’t watch the television show until she started dating me.”

The couple resides in Jackson.

Guy sang “Let the Eagle Soar” at the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony in Washington, D.C., for the second term of President George Bush in 2005. I highly recommend you click on the link and listen. Another more precise-sounding source is an onstage performance from MusicMaker 1979. He recorded the song on the One Nation Under God CD.

Later that year, Hovis performed with Mississippi Rising – The Concert in Support of the Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts (October 2005). Additionally, he has volunteered with veterans’ organizations, the March of Dimes, and the American Cancer Society. Jackson voted him “Volunteer of the Year.”

As an entertainer, Guy has recorded fifteen albums, Christmas Songs I Love: Hymns and Gospel Favorites, and Inspirational, to name a couple. He was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2021.

Hovis has been a celebrity on game shows, performed for national charity telethons, and appeared in commercials. Other shows include The Dinah Shore Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and The Mike Douglas Show. Locally, audiences may have seen Hovis at the Mississippi State Fair – during the Senior American America Day, churches and retirement homes, and private and corporate events.

Wunnerful, Wunnerful!

Take some time to listen to “A Conversation with Guy Hovis,” an interview with Jim Ritchie, posted on YouTube on July 18, 2022. The interview ends with Guy playing the guitar and singing “Mississippi This is Your Song.”

The official website for Guy Hovis is www.guyhovismusic.com.

As I write this, I can’t help but wonder how often Guy Hovis sang his signature song, “Adios, Au Revoir, Aufwiedersehn?”

This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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