Ep. 405: Revisiting Jerry Clower

On this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast, we’re diving deep into the heart of southern cultural identity and the mind of Jerry Clower. Does that name ring a bell? Jerry was thrust into national fame in the 1970s when a story he told about coon hunting topped the country charts. I’m interested in those odd places where rural culture -- and specifically hunting -- crosses tracks with the mainstream. Wilson Rawls bridged that gap with his book “Where the Red Fern Grows,” and Jerry did it with comedy about hunting varmints. He’s been gone for a long time, but I was able to meet up with his old Amite County neighbor in East Fork, Mississippi: a man named John Newman. He’ll give us a behind the scenes look into who Jerry was, and some of it may surprise you. And believe it not, Brent Reaves met Jerry Clower and saw his famed Gold Cadilac. Brent swears it was as long as a battleship. Trust me boys and girls, you’re not going to want to miss this one!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
On this New Year's Eve, I'd like to go back
into the Bear Grease archives to a unique standalone episode
about Southern comedian Jerry Clower. Something about the holidays can
make us nostalgic, and I've been thinking about this one,
which originally aired a March twenty third, twenty twenty two.
That seems like so long ago. Man, the years just

(00:29):
kind of roll by. I vividly remember that I drove
eight hours just a few days before this episode aired
to meet with Jerry Klower's former neighbor in a Mitt County, Mississippi.
After we called the town hall and asked if they
knew anybody that knew Jerry, and sure enough, they gave

(00:51):
us this fella's name. Even on that trip, stopped by
to talk with old Brent Reeves, who was on this
episode who you met Jerry Klower, and had a great description.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Of meeting the man.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I really think you're going to enjoy this one, and
I just want to take him in and just thank
you all so much for the support of Bear Grease
in this country life and Backwoods University in twenty twenty five. Truly,
it's the honor of my life to be able to
bring this podcast to you every week, and I want
to wish you a happy new year, and I look

(01:27):
forward with eager expectation for twenty twenty six, and I
know that we are going to continue to uncover great
American stories. So happy new Year to everyone, and I
know that you're going to enjoy this episode about Jerry Klower,
a true Southern legend.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
What did it look like?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
It was red red suit. It had on the lapels
like a lapel. The stitching was white, so it stood
out against that.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, white boots, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
And red pants. Had a big white belt with a
belt bucal size of a Studebaker hubcap. And he had
an embroidered coon on the on the left lapel. Really, yep,
coon face right there.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
On this episode of the Bear Grease podcast, we're diving
deep into Southern culture and identity to get a view
from the captain's chair of Jerry Klower's mind. Does that
name ring a bell? Jerry was thrust into national fame
in the nineteen seventies when a story he told about
coon hunting topped the country music charts. I'm interested in

(02:35):
those odd places where rural culture, and specifically hunting, touches
the main stream. Old Wilson raws bridge the gap with
this book where the Red Fern Grows, and Jerry did
it with comedy about hunting varmints. He's been gone for
a long time, but I was able to go meet
up with his old neighbor in East Fork, Mississippi and

(02:57):
a Mitt County, and he'll give us a behind the
scenes looking to who Jerry was, and some of it
will surprise you, and believe it or not, Old Brent
Reeves met Jerry Klower and saw his famed gold Cadillac
that Brent swears was as long as the battleship. Trust me, boys,
you're not gonna want to miss this one.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
It was beyond my comprehension that somebody in my family
didn't know him, because the stories that he told were
stories that I could identify with as far as how
he grew up.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
My name is Clay Knukem and this is the Bear
Grease Podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search
for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the
story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land.
Presented by FHF gear, American made purpose built hunting and

(04:03):
fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as the
places we explored.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
First of all, I want you to know that I
come from Route four Liberty, Mississippi. Now that's twelve miles
west of McComb, Mississippi, sixty five miles due northeast of
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and one hundred and sixteen miles due
north of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was there that I

(04:36):
first saw the light of day out of a Mitt
County September the twenty eighth, nineteen hundred and twenty six.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I was born there.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
If you recognize that voice, many assumptions could be made about.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
You and your history.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
You're likely over the age of thirty, have tie to
the Southern United States, are a fan of old country music,
and I could likely guess your political leanings. Throughout any
culture in the world, there are insiders who represent a
sector of the population.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
These people are significant and.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Carry the values of their people, but their interpretation of
those values is amplified through time. My friend Steve Brunella
recently said that if you can ice fish in your state,
that state isn't in the South, and I completely agree
with that. From a geopolitical boundary standpoint. But I'd like
to add a second layer of analysis. If your family

(05:39):
listened to Jerry Klower, you're likely culturally Southern, and I'll
make a definitive statement. If you don't know who Jerry
Klower is, you aren't Southern. I'm sorry, or you've been
locked out of Chicken Cooper your whole life. We've been
talking about hunting raccoon with hounds and exploring the cultural

(06:02):
impact of the book Where the Red Fern Grows. We've
pontificated on that time coon hunting did a tomahawk dunk
on mainstream culture and they loved it. I'm looking for
patterns on how to positively portray rural life to a
sector of the population that may not understand it. Wilson
Rawls did it with his book, and we'll see that

(06:23):
the brilliant humorist Jerry Klower did it by telling a
human story.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
You see, Jerry was.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Catapulted into the national spotlight in nineteen seventy one because
of a short tale he told about a coon hunt
in Mississippi. The story was so intriguing producers from New
York City traveled to meet him with, in Jerry's words,
a pocket full of money in the following contract launched
the forty five year old fertilizer salesman into immediate stardom.

(06:54):
Jerry wasn't a musician, but recorded twenty seventh full length
recordings through MCA Records, producing two gold albums and a
platinum record, and he became a member of the Grand
Old Opry, wrote four books and hosted multiple television shows.
Jerry's first album made more than ten million dollars in
the first ten months and stayed in country's top twenty.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
On the chart for thirty weeks.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Author Willie Morris said Klower's comic art demonstrates the richness
of the spoken language in the South in all its
inwardness nu once in Sweep, he described it as extravagant
Southern talk.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Jerry would become known.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
As the Mouth of the South, and in a time
of racial upheaval, he was outspoken in his support of
racial integration and support of African Americans. Jerry has been
gone since nineteen ninety eight, but I traveled to East Fort,
Mississippi in a Mitt County to meet with Jerry's longtime
neighbor and fellow East Fort Baptist Church member, mister John Newman,

(07:59):
who will help us under rivaled Jerry's life and comedy.
Mister John is a clean shaven, handsome feller in his
early seventies, with a headful of white hair, midleinked sideburns,
and a worn pair.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Of leather boots.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
But most importantly, he knew Jerry well and loved him
like a brother. So Jerry he was born in nineteen
twenty six. He passed away in nineteen ninety eight at
the age of seventy one.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
What do we know.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
About his early life that probably had some impact on
just who he was?

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Tell me about his early history just as a kid.

Speaker 5 (08:34):
Jerry was born during some real hard times in the
history of the country. Depressions were pretty common. We went
through two of them, went through a couple of World wars.
Jerry and his brother Sonny, both served in World War Two,
and his mother told me that one of the saddest
stories that she could relate to in regard to her

(08:55):
children in that at one time both of them boys
were missing. They didn't know where they were. She prayed
that God would look out for him bring him back
home safely, and he did. But Jerry was brought up
in some pretty tough times. His mother was the sole provider.
They didn't have a lot of the luxuries of life,
just like a lot of people, a lot of us
that were lived in this part of the country that

(09:16):
grew up in the south, then some pretty tough times.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Jerry said that his county was so poor people couldn't
afford to sin, and that he ate so much slick,
shiny boiled ocre that when he was a boy he
couldn't keep his socks up. Once, when asked if he
hadn't been poor, if he would have achieved what he did,
he said, quote no, because I probably would have been arrogant,
and I wouldn't have had a coon dog.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
He was a joy to be around. He loved everybody.
He never let his fame or his fortune go to
his head. Many times, different occasions he would call me
up ask me what I was doing. This was after
he had moved back into the East Folk commune to you
then said John, come on over, we're gonna put on
some coffee. I want to tell you about where I
be and who I saw. But everywhere he went, anybody

(10:06):
that he had in contact with, and Jed and you,
a lot of people he knew people all over the country, politicians, athletes,
people from every walk of life, business characters, so many
people that he knew he had an influence on.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Now tell me how you knew Jerry.

Speaker 5 (10:21):
I knew Jerry when I was just a small child.
Jerry was a few years older than me at the time.
He lived in Yazoo City and became a fertilizer salesman
there for Mississippi Chemical Corporation. And it was just by coincidence,
an accident, as Jerry has told me before and has
he related in some of his stories, he kind of

(10:43):
backed into show business. But he was always a big talker.
He was a good salesman. He had a lovable style character.
If you met him, you never forgot him. And I
think he was on a sales pitch over in Texas
and somebody asked him, said, Jerry, with the talent that
you've got, you need to use that you owe to
Michael Record.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
So Jerry was selling fertilizer.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
He started using just some stories just to kind of
loosen people up.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
That's right, I mean, just like he actually would as
a sales peach.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
And somebody heard it and said, you are so funny,
and the guy. The guy said, Hey, I want to
record you tell one of these stories, and he did.
In nineteen seventy one, at the unlikely age of forty five,
the fertilizer salesman recorded his first comedy album titled Jerry
Klower from Yazoo City, Mississippi Talking with Lemon Label out

(11:36):
of Texas. The album was a series of stories of
Jerry just talking. Each was titled like a song on
an album, and they sold over eight thousand records for
five dollars each, and some radio stations started playing it,
and then he got the attention he needed.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
The next day, I got a telephone call from New
York City, said, mister cly why, I'm vice president of
a major record company. You have some talents, and the
next time you're in this vicinity, eh, would you drop by.
We'd like to talk to you. I said, I ain't
never gonna be in that vicinity. I said, man, you

(12:15):
don't leave, yes, Zoo said in Misssippi, and just drop
by New York. If y'all want to see me, you
gonna have to send for me. Two days later the
phone rang.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
The Decca label would sign Jerry to a recording contract.
The album would later become one of his two gold
record albums, selling over five hundred thousand copies in just
one month. A gold record is one that sells over
a half million albums. If you remember Robert Morgan's quote
from our Boon series about how most great artists, explorers

(12:53):
and writers do the best work of their life in
their thirties, you'll see that that must not apply to
fertilizer salesman. Well, that's what's so interesting is that he
he didn't get into it until you know, he wasn't
born into it. I mean he was, it was later
in his life. But that's very rare, I would say

(13:14):
it is. Usually people have show business in their targets
from a young kid. That's something they pursue. That was, Yeah,
he backed into it. It wasn't what he was trying.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
To he did. He backed into it.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
And then so he this guy recorded this record or
recorded him telling some country story. Do you know what
story it was, by chance that he told Originally?

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Yeah, I think it was Knock him Out, John, Oh,
really it was the cooner story.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Here in lies the reason we're talking about Jerry Klower.
His all time most popular story was about raccoon, honey
with hounds. Very interesting. We'll hear more about this story later.
I've heard it said that he was he was a humorist,
not necessarily a comedian, which you know, to me, you know,

(14:05):
just to say to say someone's a comedian just means
that they're funny, which I think he would, you know,
qualify for that. But the way he described himself, as
he said, I don't tell funny stories.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
I tell stories funny.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
And that's what I'm so struck by as I've listened
to so much of his stuff, is that the stories
are often just kind of it's it's the normal life
of it that sometimes is what's so interesting.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
But he has this cast of characters that he always
goes through.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
So almost all his stories, all his all his routines,
have this cast of characters.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Can you name most of them?

Speaker 5 (14:41):
Well, that was mysell. There's Eugene R. Dale, rayn Nell Burn,
Ale m Al new Gene, Eugene, Uncle Verceey, Ain't pet
old man Zysh. That was my great grandpa, mister Versy.
Quite a few of those characters.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
And so were those real people.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
Some of them were that I know of, and he
used their real names or not. In some instances he
did tell me what.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
You know about some of those characters and some of
the some of the things that he talked.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
About, well, one in particular to my great grandfather.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
The story mister John is about to tell is the
real story that Jerry titled The New Chandelier, and you
can listen to it on any streaming platform. It was
included on Jerry Klower's greatest hit album.

Speaker 5 (15:29):
The Magno Electric Association had just begun to establish rural
electric service here in our county, was back in the
late forties. All you had to do was sign up,
be willing to pay for the poll to be put up,
and electricity run from that pole to your house and
they took care of everything else. So they had notified
our church that while they were in the community, they

(15:50):
would be glad to provide our church with electrical service.
So the church had a business meeting monthly business meeting,
and it was brought up said, hey man, look at here,
here's a golden opportunity for us to have electricity lights
at our church, and we need to think about this.
It was brought up and voted on that we go
ahead and let them put up the power polls and

(16:10):
have electricity. And the moderator, which was a pastor, said,
is there any amendments or is there any discussion before
we vote? And my great grandpa said yeah, he had
something he would like to share. But before that, one
of the ladies in the church said she thought it
would be a marvelous idea for the church to go
ahead and get a chandelier since we was gonna have electricity.

(16:32):
As the amendment was brought up, my great grandpa stood
up and said he was against that.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
The moderator said, is there any discussion? And Uncle Versy
that better, said, sir, I'd like to speak. I want
all of you to know that if we gonna buy
a shandelier, there ain't nobody in our church got enough
education that when we order it from Seis and Roebucket,

(16:59):
they could spell it.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Then if we ordered.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
The chandelier and it got here, there's nobody in our
church it knows how to play it. And what I'm
concerned about is we don't need to spend this money
on no schandelier as bad as we need lights in

(17:25):
the church.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
So that actually happened, happened. I'll be there.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
But then technology wasn't like it is today. Most people
had never been no further than fifty or sixty miles now.
They weren't exposed to education like we are today, didn't
have access to advancements in technology, and he didn't know
right he was speaking his heartfelt convictions where he honestly
did not know.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
In this story, Jerry told it almost exactly as it happened,
but he told it funny. And because many of the
stories were true or almost true, they were relatable and
showed the character of the people, all the while poking.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
A little fun at the stereotypes.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
But because Jerry was at the wheel, because he was
one of us, it was okay. It made us feel
okay about being Southern and strangely, maybe even a little
bit proud of our quirks. You know, the South seems
to be known for these big characters like storytelling, and
maybe if you're deeply embedded, and it's hard to see

(18:34):
that maybe in other places it's not as it's not
as prominent. But was Jerry surrounded by people that were
like him? And I know nobody else made it in
show business, but was he impacted probably by people that
taught him how to tell stories and be funny.

Speaker 5 (18:51):
I think a lot of that just came to him naturally.
He associated with a lot of people that were of
the same character make up that he was. I guess
in regard to that, they just did not have the
people orientation to be able to express themselves and connect
with people the way he did. Yeah, but I don't
think that Jerry ever realized until he got into show

(19:13):
business the impact that he did have on people.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
I think there are three components to Jerry Klower. Number One,
he was undoubtedly gifted at collecting stories and delivering them
in unreplicatable, funny and compelling ways. However, number two, no
man is an island, and I believe he would have
learned components of his storytelling when he was a boy

(19:42):
by listening to others in rural Mississippi. I'm sure he
collected dialects and picked up on where to put the emphasis.
He learned how to use sound effects and put it
all together to create this unique style. And that brings
up number three. Jerry Klower's style well affected the way
the South would and still does tell stories. Up until

(20:06):
researching this podcast, it had been a while since I
listened to Jerry years. Actually in some of his stuff
I had never heard. Coming back into his comedy, I
clearly saw his cadence style, dialect, mannerisms echo through the
way that people now tell stories. He helped interpret for

(20:27):
us what was funny. You know a lot of people
that our comedians are extremely intelligent number one, and are
extremely socially aware. For him to be able to find
the nuance of funny stuff inside of his everyday culture,

(20:47):
the stuff that other people were like walking right past,
I mean, just shows what an alert, aware, intelligent guy
he was.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Would you agree with that?

Speaker 5 (20:56):
I would, Jerry. He had a way of relating to people.
He was a very comical person, but to me, knowing
him as well as I did, he appeared to me
to be a lot more ease in a private climate.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
We've been to his house on numerous occasions, and he
was a lot more comical because I think he was
a lot more at ease with people that he knew
and in a setting that he was familiar with you.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Or his church, So he was more funny when he
was with people.

Speaker 5 (21:24):
Oh yes, definitely, definitely. One thing that I've always been
quite proud of. My wife had got a master's degree
over William Carey Cottage, and Jerry gave her this plaque
in recognition of it, and it's from the Knock Him
Out John Foundation. He gave this to my wife. When
he gave this to her, he told her how proud

(21:45):
he was of her. And he looked at me and
he said, you know, it's a miracle that you were
able to accomplish, make the Deanes list, these honors that
you have received. It was a miracle. And with what
you have to put up with at home, I knew
he was making reference to me. I said, Jerry, let
me tell you what a miracle is. I said, I

(22:06):
can't sing, and I know that. And I said I
know you can't either, because I done sit with you
before in church and other services. And you can't sing.
I said, you couldn't carry a tune in the bucket.
And I doubt if you know the difference between a
guitar and a piano. Yet you had been inducted into
the Grand Old Opry. That's what you call a miracle.
And he grabbed me around the neck with his right

(22:27):
hand and with his Bible cleanched in his left hand,
and he looked up in the heavens and tears run
down his face and he said, John, ain't God good.
Ain't God good?

Speaker 2 (22:37):
So it was a real moment for him.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
It was just while you were trying to be funny
and just and said, you know, making a joke about
him not being able to sing, but being in that
Grand Old Opry. It impacted him just in that moment.
He was just grateful. It's moments like this with no
cameras or recorders that you can see inside of someone.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Jerry grew up dirt poor.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
He didn't hit the big time until he was in
his mid forties.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
He truly appreciated what had happened in his life.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
I think it hit him hard on October twenty seventh,
nineteen seventy three, when he was inducted into the.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Grand Old Opry.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Now, if you're familiar with country music, there's no need
to qualify that statement, But if you're not, this is
a big deal.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
The Grand Old Opry.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Is a weekly country music concert show held in Nashville, Tennessee,
that started in nineteen twenty five and has played almost
every Saturday night for the last one hundred years. It's
the longest running broadcast in US history. It's been called
the home of American music and country's most famous stage.
The Opry inducts certain people as members who are people

(23:46):
of influence in country music, but usually they're musicians, but
Jerry was one of the rare inductees that wasn't. Members
are required to perform at the Opry a certain amount
of times each year, and in its history, the Opry
has inducted over two hundred and twenty five members. You
guys know Old Brent Reeves. He is Bear Greece's goodwill

(24:08):
ambassador of the South and our chief cornbread concoisseur. He
grew up in the heyday of Jerry Klower's career, when
listening to the Grand Old Opry was one of the
highlights of the week, and wildly Brent got to meet Jerry.
Can you imagine a young Brent Reeves meeting Jerry Klower?

(24:29):
And I had to laugh when I heard what Jerry
called him.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
We had what was known. I'm not even sure if
it's still there, but there was an event center and
it was called the Bradley County Cultural Center, cultural hub
of the Universe as far as far as I.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Know, cultural Hub of Bradley County exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
And this is in Warnhart at Warren High School and
it was on the campus of the high school there,
and it was an auditorium And for our junior year fundraiser,
we got Jerry Klower that booked him to come and
put on a show.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
So nineteen eighty three, that had been eighty three, that
would have been about the peak of his I mean,
inside the peak of his career.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, And I have no clue what it cost us
to get him. But when he left, he handed the
check back and said give it back to the school.
No what he came from his home. He drove up
there himself and the biggest, longest cadillac I ever saw
by himself.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
He had.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
All he wanted was the place to change, to change
into his that suit that he wore, that signature, what.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Did it look like?

Speaker 3 (25:37):
It was red red suit it had on the lapels
like on lapel the stitching was white so it stood
out against that. Yeah, and he had an embroidered coon
on the on the left lapel. Really yep, coon face
right there. And I got to meet him and he.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Was so nice. Now, how did you meet him?

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Since I it was our class and there was like
ten or twelve of us that were selected to go
over and help set everything up and to be there
to help them since it was our project, our fundraiser.
So I got out of class early that day to
go over there and help him. Plus I wanted to
meet him. I mean, this is somebody who I had
seen on television and heard these stories. We had the.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Records remember of the Grand Old Opera.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Oh yeah, the whole the big It was a big deal. Yeah,
And I heard him on the Grand Old Oppry. My well,
my dad and I and I've told you this before.
My dad and I would go hunting at night. Of
course we were running, he was chasing codies then with
the pack dogs. But when until the race got going,
we listened to the Grand Old Opery on AM radio

(26:38):
in his truck and lots sometimes you know.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
On Saturday nights.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, Jerry Clark to be there. And so I've been
listening to those stories my whole life. And this was,
you know, a guy that was in my radio. It
was in he was in our community, you know, the
community that the culture I guess that I grew up in.
So it was it was a big deal him him
coming there, and I remember it being packed full of folks.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Now, so was it open to the public.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, they sold tickets, sold.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Tickets sponsored by your class, sponsored raised.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Money, got you and that's what it was. So you you.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Said he pulled up in a Cadillac. I mean you
saw his cadillac. Oh yeah, what color was it?

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Gold? I'm telling you it as long as a battleship.
It was huge.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
I heard that he had a gold Cadillac, so I'm.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
Just yeah, yeah, well that's what he was driving. And
like I said, he came by himself. He had a
a dressing room. They brought him some, you know, some
cold drinks to drink, and I think somebody brought flowers
and stuff. But he took time to talk to anybody
that wanted to talk to. When I shook his hand
and I was a junior in high school, he said, boy,
that's a man's handshake.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
That's nice.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
He said, you are pretty boy, and uh, that's.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
What he said. Are you serious? Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (27:51):
And we talked.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Forget that one. We were a pretty boy.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
He said you were a pretty boy, and uh, of course,
you know manners, yes or no, sir, He remarked about that.
And we just talked and you know, I tried to
talk about. I just assumed he had a pen full
of coon dogs at home. I mean, yeah, but you
know obviously he didn't.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, and uh, he just had one embroidered.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
He had little pal of his red sports coach, sure,
which every man probably should have.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
You had on white cowboy boots. Yeah, and red pants.
Had a big white belt with a belt buckle size
of a Studie Baker hubcap, big fancy shirt, you know,
pearl snaps on it in that in that red signal
so jacket.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Do you remember the thing? What did he do when
he stood up? Was he the only act of the night?

Speaker 2 (28:36):
He was the act?

Speaker 3 (28:37):
He was it?

Speaker 2 (28:38):
He was so how long did he speak?

Speaker 3 (28:39):
I would imagine about an hour.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Jerry Klower has famous stories, and he kind of.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
The greatest hits, I would assume is what he talked about.
Of course, he did the one about knock him Out John,
you know about you know, shoot up in here, monks.
This one of us has got to have some relief,
you know when when he got up there with the Wildcat.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Of Jerry's entire career, his story called knock Him Out
John is his most famous. As always, the story starts
out at Route four, Liberty, Mississippi, and then he begins
to give very specific geographic detail of where this town
is twelve miles west of McComb, Mississippi, sixty five miles

(29:21):
due northeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and one hundred and
sixteen miles due north of New Orleans, Louisiana. It's so
detailed you're drawn in with great curiosity of why this
matters and place did matter to Jerry, just like it
mattered to Wilson Ross. Then he proceeds to tell what

(29:43):
they'd done during the day before they went coon hunting
that night.

Speaker 4 (29:48):
This particular day, we wasn't too busy. All we had
done is just cut down a few fence rolls, shutting
shells from corn and went to mill, drew up some
water because that was wash day, helped get the side
back what rooted out from under the net wire fence
sharp and two sticks of stove would real sharp and

(30:08):
pegged them down over the bottom wire of the fence
where the hog couldn't root out no more, and had
a rat killing.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
If I'm lying, I'm dying. Jerry had a knack for
using intricate detail of obscure activities to peak the interest
of the listeners.

Speaker 4 (30:28):
He went on, Well, this particular day, after we got
through the rat killing, I walked out on the front
porch and I hollered, and them dogs come out of
mother's house barking. They knew he was going coon hunt,
and I hollered again. In my neighbor way across the
sage patch, hollered back, and that meant I'll meet you halfway.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
We met in the middle of.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
That sage patch, and he had his dogs over brumming
and Queen and spotting. I had Tory and Little Red
and old Trailer, and we went out into the swamps
and we started hunting. Oh, we was having such a
fine time. Caught four great biggots.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
He and the neighbors then run into the landowner, mister Baron,
who had gotten rich by selling cotton for a dollar
a bell.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
During the First World Wars.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Incredible detail, and with those riches he bought some good
coon dogs. Along with him was John Eubanks, who was
known for being a professional tree climber and loved knocking
coons out of trees. Both of these guys were real
people in Jerry's life.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
He had some world renowned dogs, and we hollered three
or four times, and they started hunting, and we listened
and directly old brummy, Old Brummy didn't bark it nothing
but a coon. He had a deep boys bade and
when he cut out on him, it was a coon.
Don't worry about no ploshum on, no bobcat. Brummy was
running a coon. And then old Trailer and o'high ball

(31:53):
and them famous dogs, and mister Baron's got in there
with them, and Old John U Banks holler, hey speak too,
and my brother son and ha hoo, look ferd and
oh it was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Shortly the dogs fall in tree on I quote, the
biggest sweet gum tree in the a Min River swamps,
and the group goes to the barking dog. John Eubanks
didn't like shooting a coon out, and he only liked
to knock him out of the tree for the dogs
to sort out. So John proceeds to climb the tree

(32:27):
with a sharp stick in his hand.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
Knock him out, John, It won't be long. And John
worked his way on up to the top of the tree,
and who what a big one. And he reached around
in his overhauls and got that sharp stick and he
drawed back and he punched the coon.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
But it wasn't a coon.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
It was a lynx. We call him souped up wild cats.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
And and then Jerry says, that thing attacked John up
in the top of that tree. Jerry often purposely mispronounced words,
as was the custom of the people in this region.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
Away, what's the.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
Matter with John? Knock him out, John.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
This thing's killing me. And John knew that.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
Mister Baron told the pistol in his belt to shoot
snakes with and he kept howling, shoot this thing, have mercy,
this thing killing me.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Shoot this thing.

Speaker 4 (33:30):
And mister Baron said, John, I can't shoot up in there.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
I might hit you.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
John said, well, just shoot up in here. Amongst us,
one of us got.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
To have some relief.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
Jerry's colorful sound effects, the details about the dogs, the
surprise of the wild cat and the tree, and the
absolute distress of John fighting that lynx created an unforgettable story. Now,
something I don't have the answer to is why Jerry
called it a lynx, which is a northern cat that
never ranged into the American South ever, kind of like

(34:14):
the black panther. Anyway, you got to listen to the
whole story. You can search for it online and it's
called a coon Hunting story.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
And Jerry's comedy skits.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
He he had multiple, multiple skits that talked about coon
hunting and multiple skits that talked about quail hunting. Was
he a big hunter or was he was that just
kind of a part of his background that he was
part of.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
It was part of his background. He was a big
quail hunter, big coon hunter, big fisherman.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:52):
I had headed to Macomb one day and I passed
by his house and he was standing at his mailbox
and I turned and went back. He said, Jerry, what
in the world you doing standing out you in this heat?
He was wiping his forehead with a handkerchifere of sweating
and I said, Man, it's hot out here. What you
do in this heat? He said, well, John, I'm going
to tell you the truth. He said, Bass pro shopping

(35:12):
Jacksonssissippi call me and wanted me to come up there
and pick out something on the showroom floor. Said there
was one stipulation. I said, what was that, Jerry? He
said it had to be a bass boat. So he said,
I went up picked me out a bass boat and
they own their way down here now to deliver it.
And I was afraid that if they missed my driveway
and wound up over at your house, I'd have trouble

(35:33):
getting my boat back.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
I'll be daring.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Were the coon dogs that Jerry talked about, were they
real coondogs that he had?

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Brummy and high Ball?

Speaker 5 (35:45):
Yeah? And now the man that actually owned high Ball
lived about a mile across his pasture, is that right? Yeah,
he owned high Ball and he was a dog was
known all over the country. Back when that dog was living,
most folks might not could have told you who the
sheriff of the county was. They might not have knew
who the tax successor was, but they knew about high Ball.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Now what kind of dog was Highball?

Speaker 5 (36:11):
I think high Ball was a redbone hound, I believe.
But there were several other dogs that had some notoriety too.
One of them was Rowty that was owned by my uncle.
But old Spot and Brummy. But back then, in that
particular time of history in our community, that was a
big source of recreation.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (36:31):
And they coon honeed and money for hides, right right,
selling possum hides. And you probably heard DearS talk about
flagging the conductor down on the train. He asked him,
did he want to buy some possum.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Hides, possum meat? That's what he asked, If he wanted
to buy possum to eat? Yeah, yeah, he flagged. He
flags down. The conductor of the train stops the train.
The conductor gets out and says, what kind of catastrophe
has happened that you've stopped the train? And the guy says, well,
I just wondered if you wanted to buy a possum

(37:06):
from us? And the conductor said, are you crazy? You
stopped the train just to ask us if we wanted
to buy a possum, And the guy said yeah. And
then the conductor goes, well, it's crazy that you've done this,
but since you have, I like possum, So how much
you want for the possum?

Speaker 2 (37:23):
And then and then he said.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
Man said, you idiot.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
You mean to tell me that you have done stopped
a hundred car Banana train seeing if we wanted to
buy a possum. You must be an idiot. But I
like possum. And inasmuch as we have stopped, what do
you want for him? Marcell said, we ain't caught him yet.
I just want to see if you wanted want.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Jerry's stories were a combination of fact and fiction, but
some of the stories were entirely true. This story is
titled Marcel's Talking Chainsaw. It's on the Greatest Hits album.
So this is a this is a story. This is
one of Jerry Klower's bits that he told over and
it was one of his more famous pieces. Yeah, tell

(38:17):
me where he got that? The real story behind that one.

Speaker 5 (38:21):
Marshall had been to the pump woodyard and he come
back by the beer joint and he wanted to get
him one of them big knee high belly washers and
the moon pie. And he went to the front door
and knocked on the door, and the man running the
beer joints said, boy, get away from my door. That
you ain't got no bed to sit here. And Marshall
told him said, well, I ain't gonna cause no trouble, said,

(38:41):
I just want a big sadie pipe and a moon pie.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Now why did he run him off? Because this is
a real story.

Speaker 5 (38:46):
This is the Rochelle wasn't old enough to go in there.
Oh okay, he told him to get away from that door.
Marshall went back truck pulled out that mc collor chainsaw,
fired it up and come back and stuck it snout
of it in that door, and it ripped that brace
and bracket and the hinges off the door, and that
screen tangled up through that chain as it went around
that bar. Folks give marcell to beer joints, and that happened.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
That that happened just like that.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
That happened just before you crossed the Amitt County line.
That beer joint was right there on the lift.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
So Jerry just told the story pretty much like it happened.
That's right, except for the brand of the chainsaw right now.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
Tell me he did not. I don't think he remembered
what the brand of the chainsaw was. But McCullough was
the first name that came to his mind, and he
said mccullor. And what he did. It's like he told me, said, man,
folks started buying McCullough chainsaws. Didn't even know how to
crank them.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
You know what's so funny about that is so I
was born in nineteen seventy nine. The first chainsaw I
remember my dad having would have been in the mid eighties,
and it was a McCullough chainsaw, which I don't even
think mccallaugh's.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
O don't businessman, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Now you told me McCullough's sent because of that skit
and how big it was, McCullough sent some chainsaws to
the family and kind of.

Speaker 5 (39:58):
Helped him out some four and go carts. I believe
it was.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
I'll be darned send it to Jerry Klower just to
Faith thanks for plugging McCulloch chainsaws.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
But Jerry could advertise it. One time he was spokesperson
for Christ Corporation. I think at one time he was
spokesperson for Lincoln but Man that the promotional items that
companies would give him.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Just hoping it would make it into one of his stories.

Speaker 5 (40:22):
He cared a lot of weight. He was influential wherever
he went.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Mister John remembered a funny story about Jerry.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
Jerry was always pulling pranks. He was a prankster. But
he pulled up at church one Sunday morning. He was
the first one there and I got there just within
a minute or so after he did, and he got
out of his car and he made a quick dash
for the church steps. I knew you then knowing Jerry
like I did. I knew that he was up to something.

(40:53):
And he had on his bright red coat and his
designer jeans, and he ran up to the church steps
and he put his foot up on next to the
bottom step, and he pulled his richest leg up above
his cowboy boot so I would be sure and see
the new boots that he had on. But I walked
right by him. I didn't shake hands with him, I

(41:14):
didn't speak, didn't say good morning, Jerry, how you doing.
I never acknowledged that he was there, walked right past him.
And he ran up behind me and grabbed me around
the nick and he said, John, you know you've seen
them boots. You're just jealous because you ain't got a
pair like them.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
I want to discuss with Brent Jerry's impact on the South.
What do you think that impact of Jerry Klower was
on the people of the South. You know, because he
kind of rose up from the ashes in a sense
of poverty and unlikely character. I mean, became famous when

(41:53):
he was in his forties.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yea. He was a fertilizer salesman, correctly.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah, And he became famous in his forties, which is
highly unusual. I mean usually by that time people are
kind of their trajectory is semi set. And he until
he passes away when he was seventy one, he just
has this incredible career, becomes a member of the Grand
Old Opry, writes multiple books, yeah, records, multiple records, has

(42:18):
number one hits on country radio, which wasn't even music,
but they were playing his his skits on the radio,
in his his style, his mannerisms. They were very familiar
to people in the South, sure, but very unfamiliar to
Oh is that funny? Could that be? On the national

(42:38):
stage of comedy? What do you think the impact of
Jerry Klower was on the South?

Speaker 3 (42:44):
I can relate, you know. We talked about Wilson Rawls,
you know, and I told you about I could relate
to Billy in the story. But the tales that Jerry
Klower put himself in, some of it based on truth,
some of it just made it because he had a
great imagination. But I could identify with that. It was
to the point to where when we saw I saw

(43:05):
him on television he would host a country music show
that came out on Sunday afternoons. It was beyond my
comprehension that somebody in my family didn't know him, because
the stories that he told were stories that I could
identify with, as far as how he grew up or
bird hunting, you know, having a dog that you know,

(43:27):
tree and coons.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
He talked about that I had corn and shelling peas
and mules and.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Going barefooted, and being hot and being so hot that
in the summertime that you wouldn't button up the sides
on your overalls.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
And eat eating so much bold ocre that he couldn't
keep his socks up.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
These were all things that he talked about I had
either done or seen done.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
I mean, it was just you weren't seeing that anywhere else.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
So you're this kid being raised in southern Arkansas, which
I will note even for the South, there are different
kind of cultures inside the South. Like I'm from the South, right,
being from Arkansas, but we lived in the highlands, which
is quite different in there. You know, where you grew
up in southeastern Arkansas where Jerry Clower lived from, you

(44:16):
would have basically been same agriculture, same influence of the
river bottoms and Delta, and just a couple hours away.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Really, yeah, he just lived on the other side of
the Mississippi River.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, so you would have had even probably a stronger
connection to some of that than a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
I would hear stories, you know, we would hear the
funny stories, and then my dad would tell one and
it would have the same type. Characters are the same.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
He would talk about a wagon, you know, Jerry Clarer
might tell a story about riding the town in a wagon,
and then my dad would tell a story about him
riding in a wagon. So it was easy to transfer,
you know, my kinship, I guess to the stuff that
he was talking about, regardless of the subject, you know,
Like I said, a lot of that stuff he was
making up, but it all, it all went back to

(45:04):
the stories I'd heard all my life and the things
that I had witnessed with my own eyes.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
And you know what I think it did is I
think it validated poor, poverty stricken people in the South.
Because you think about the media of that time, the
country music scene would have been focused in some ways
on the South. I mean not entirely, but there have
been famous people, you know, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn
and all these people, but the mainstream influencers of the

(45:32):
time certainly would not have been from, you know, a
guy like Jerry Klower. And so for him to rise
up and to tell our stories, you know, quote unquote
our stories talking about our people, and him being so
funny and so likable. You know, you wouldn't listen to
Jerry Klower and just instinctively say this man is intelligent,
but a highly intelligent man. And that made us that

(45:56):
that validated us.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
I read I read an article on Time talking about
Jerry Klower that when he was on the grand Ole Offry,
he was of all the folks on there wearing overalls
and playing music and talking about being from the country.
He was the only guy on there that had a
degree in agriculture out of every member of the grand
Ole Offry. So he had grown up living. He lived

(46:19):
what he portrayed, you know, I mean it was I
think you can see it's easy to see truth in that,
and it will connect with somebody, even though you may
not know his background, but you can tell when someone
is genuine. And it all kept it off when I
got to meet him in person. But he was a
genuine person. And what you saw on television and what
I saw on television. Now what I listened to on

(46:41):
the radio. It was him.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Speaking of Jerry's college education.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
He started off at a community college but ended up
playing football at Mississippi State.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Jerry was a pretty big old boy.

Speaker 5 (46:55):
Jerry said. The first college football game he ever went
to in his life he played in.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
It is that right? So he he played? What school
did he play for down here?

Speaker 5 (47:04):
I think Jerry went to I don't know if he
went to Southwest Junior College, but he went to Mississippi State.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
But but he went to high school.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
Yeah, we had consolidated high school.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Did they have a football team here?

Speaker 5 (47:17):
I don't think they did?

Speaker 2 (47:19):
So he how did that work? Because that's what I thought.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
I thought he didn't play high school football, but he
ended up in college football. Just he was just that
good of an athlete that he just went and tried
out for the football team having never played and made it,
played for Mississippi State.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
I'll be done.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
In Jerry's humor. You'll often hear sports analogies used. I
want to dig deeper into Jerry's humor and why it
was funny. First of all, he would start off with
an intriguing story that you know that had to happened
or been made up or partials of both of those
things connected, and he would give an ordinate amount of detail,

(48:02):
usually in the beginning, like he.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Would say yeah, he would tell he would give.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
His address and say, I'm from east for Mississippi, one
hundred and sixty five miles from Baton Rouge. I mean,
just give you all this, and you're you're just intrigued
because of the tone of his voice and the way.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
He's describing it. But you're just like, you have.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
No idea why this is relevant, but you're like doing
geography in your head, you know, like figuring out where
he's at. And then he starts talking and he you know,
I've heard it said that comedy, the more specific you
can be inside of comedy, the funnier it is, the
more you can relate to it. And so he just
gives these random details all over it. And then his
accent was just I listened to it today and it's

(48:43):
it's almost an artifact. You know, he's been gone about
twenty four years, Jerry Clower has. He died in nineteen
ninety eight, and so you know, his accent in the
way that he structured his sentences very unique and probably
unique even to that part of Mississippi. When you listen
back to it, you hear sentence structures and completely improper

(49:08):
usage of words, but that made perfect sense.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
The way them was correct.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Yeah, And so the accent was intriguing, The details were intriguing,
the hooks were perfect, the names and the stories and
the places where he over exaggerated stuff that you knew
he was over exaggerating would be super funny. But he
often too pitted country people against city people sometimes, and

(49:34):
usually the guy from the country would not always end
up looking to be the smartest, but he was usually right.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
Yeah, And it was usually the hook in that or
the bringing it home or what however you the phrase
would be, is that guy used common sense. The country
guy used common sense above you know, a college degree
or something.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
It was like I've always kind of parried it with
like the Andy Griffiths show, a show that I have
seen all of them hundreds of times, and they never
get old to me. Those stories. When I hear Jerry Clower's,
they never even I know, I know the punchlines coming,
I know what's fixing to happen. I could do his
whole act myself. Just about you know, yeah, but they're

(50:18):
still funny. And I think it's probably a mixture of
nostalgia of listening to it and thinking back, you know,
when me and my dad was down on the Potlatch
road timber company road, waiting for the dogs to track
the last time I heard that, or one time that
I heard this story. And so there's just a lot
of meat in it. It's just a lot of good,

(50:38):
wholesome storytelling.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
So there's a book written by Jerry Klower called Stories
from Home, and what it is it's an interview. It's
a transcribed interview that they did with Jerry Klower, and
he talked about a intentional decision that he made when
he got into comedy to keep it clean. And there
were people in Hollywood that advised him, like, hey, you're

(51:03):
going to have to be more risk a if you
want to be successful in this sphere, and he just
he said he didn't believe him, and he made that
decision that he was gonna that he was going to
try to keep it in bounds, you know, And he
teetered on the edge sometimes of you know, jokes that
might not be appropriate for kids. Every now and then

(51:24):
he'd say something.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
That would kind of be, you know, on the edge.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
But it was always like, you know, stuff you would
let your kids listen to. No. I respected him for
just having a value system that he stuck to his
whole life. You know, I can't speak enough about Jerry's character.
I'm impressed by stuff like that. And in the book
Stories from Home, Jerry said quote, I stayed with MCA

(51:50):
records and got to where I liked it. At first,
they said, Jerry, unless you put a little risk a
or vulgar stuff on your records, you ain't never gonna
be no own nationally.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
But I defied them.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
I have never used risk a material end of quote.
I've read about his positions on race relations in the
South and kind of his story with that. He was
really ahead of his time. He was in a pretty
pretty profound way. He was what do you think about that?

Speaker 5 (52:26):
Jerry? As I said, he was a devout Christian. He
read every word of the Bible to be true, and
he accepted the fact that God accepted everybody, regardless of
race or anything else. And Jerry was ahead of his
time back then because a lot of people were pretty
objective to integration, didn't want to mingle with black people

(52:48):
and for whatever reason, did not associate with them that much.
But Jerry did, and he respected everybody. And I think
that's why everybody respected him, because he didn't cut any
ice with any anybody. Race color didn't mean anything to him.
He loved everybody.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Jerry's ideas on race grew over time, which speaks to
his ability to change. In his book, he said he
grew up with some of the stereotypical mind frames at
the time, but when he came back from the war,
he said this quote, after I became a Christian, my
convictions got to pricking my conscience. I would have to
compromise my Christian convictions if I believed some of the

(53:28):
things that I had been taught as a child. End
of quote. Here's another story. It's in reference to the
nineteen sixty three bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church,
a black church by the KKK. Jerry said, quote, I
was in Birmingham selling fertilizer after they bombed that church.

(53:48):
They bombed and killed three precious little black children. The
following Monday, I was driving through Birmingham and I had
the radio on and this guy was a disc jockey
and he was black, and he was t to rally
all the black children. He said, just say I'm somebody.
I stopped at a red light by a school bus
and a little black boy was looking out the window

(54:10):
at me. I let the window down and I said,
I know you are somebody's son. And if I could
get this scoundrel that bombed you just because you're black,
I would end of quote. I think this shows Jerry's heart.
He also had a famous quote where he said, it's
still a mystery to me how godly people can tie

(54:31):
their income, give to the poor, read the Bible, pray,
love folks, and let God run every fiber of their
being except how they treat black people.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
End of quote.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
That was big stuff coming from a white comedian in
the South in the nineteen seventies. It was Jerry's connection
to place that made his words carry weight. He grew
up in segregation and as I ideas on race relations
changed after he was an adult, as we closed down,

(55:06):
I want to explore the power of place. Well what
I learned from Where the Red Fern Grows from Sean Tuton,
literature expert, that connection to place is really intriguing to people,
even if they're not connected to that place.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
So seeing Billy.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Coleman's connection to the Ozarks in a genuine way was
intriguing because you could look through his eyes and see
that landscape and his life and the shapes of his life,
and if even if it was different from you and
you'd never been there and never going to go there.
I think that's what they did with Jerry Klower too,
is that they saw the rural, poverty stricken South in

(55:48):
a lovable, nice way.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
They probably already had that image of it. You know,
you look back at cartoons and Heal Billies and they're
you know, wearing one strap overalls and they're barefoot, and
they got those crazy looking hats, smoking a corn cob
pipe and all of that. So they saw that, they
saw that part of it and immediately. But then he
puts those very vivid stories about the characters in there,

(56:11):
and they're good people. They may bee dressed that way,
but there's there's always a redeeming quality about most of them. Yeah,
you know so, and you can identify that with whether
you got to be there or get to be there
or not.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Here's John with a couple more stories about Jerry.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
I know, one time I went over to Jerry's and
I took my coon dog. He followed me over. I
went over on a horse. We got in Jerry's yard
and a rabbit, a big rabbit, run out of one
of Miss Homerleine's flower beds, and my dog took off
after him, and he had a real deep bow. Oh
you could hear him on my way. He was just

(56:49):
barking trailing that rabbit. They was going in flower beds
and out and Jake and I was hollering at the dog,
trying to stop him because I knew Miss Hombling didn't
want that dog in the yard. And that time Jerry come.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
To the door.

Speaker 5 (57:02):
Jerry hollered, what are you doing. I said, I'm trying
to catch his dad gumb dog. I said, don't you
hear him? He said, yeah, I do. He said, man,
leave a dog alone. He said, anything got a voice
like that ought to be singing in the church choir.
Jerry came over one time. I forgot what the occasion was,
but he to the time we had a circle driver.

(57:23):
He pulled up in his car and he got out
and he had on a pair of sandals and he
had on a pair of cutoff pants and a real
loud color high ware you type shirt. That coon dog
of mine looked up and seen Jerry, and he done
like a shen.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
He twisted his hand over the world that.

Speaker 5 (57:42):
Thing was, and he went and got under my pickup
truck and wouldn't come out. And I told Jerry that
we was gonna have to go down to Liberty and
talk with my attorney because he had runned the best
potential young dog that I had ever had, and that
if he wanted to settle this out of court, we could.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
If I couldn't.

Speaker 5 (57:59):
He was gonna you have to promise me some puppies
off the next gyp And he knew of it. It was
gonna drop a litter of puppies. But I mean, we
was all the time pulling stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
One.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Well, Jerry say, when he told him about the litigation,
he laughed, he laughed. Jerry toured right up until his
passing in nineteen ninety eight and had plans for more records.
He gathered his content from people in this community and
mister John, his neighbor, told him a story that Jerry
was very intrigued by. He even told him that he

(58:28):
was going to put it on his next record. Unfortunately,
Jerry never made that record and will never hear Jerry
tell the story, but we can hear it from mister
John and if you listen, I think you can hear
Jerry's voice telling it.

Speaker 5 (58:46):
One of those was a fellow that lived here in
the community. He was a lot older than Jerry. He
lived to be I guess on up in his late nineties.
But as he began to get older, he reached a
poem and laugh where his family encouraged him to go
ahead and buy him a car. You know, he'd have
his own transportation. He could get out and go. He
didn't have to get nobody to take him where he
wanted to go. He'd have his own wheels. So he

(59:09):
bought him a sixty two Chevrolet Biscayne, and he got
him some driver's license so he could get out and
go where he wanted to. But they knew he was
going to have to have a tag, a car tag,
and some insurance. And if they would have trouble getting
him to differentiate between the liability and the collision, the
comprehension and all that, he just wouldn't understand it and

(59:29):
it would create an argument because he felt like it.
He didn't need all that junk if it was his car.
They just told him said, well, Uncle Tom said, if
you've got insurance and you ever involved in an accident,
the insurance will buy you another car. That was just
a simple way to get him to understand and bypass
the comprehension the liability collision and everything else under guard

(59:51):
automobile insurance. So he went to town every Saturday morning. But
a stop sign didn't mean nothing to him because he
had always went in that direction, and he felt like
people ought to respect him because that was the road
he had always traveled and he wasn't gonna stop for nobody.
So it happened he ran stop signed one Saturday morning

(01:00:12):
and a fellow from Baton Rouge running to him, hit him,
turned his car bottom side up, told Uncle Tom I
wanted to didn't kill him, so they called the law.
He wouldn't. He wouldn't go to the hospital in the amulets.
He just set by his car and the state trooper
came out and investigated the accident. Well, he knew Uncle Tom,
and he just didn't know how he was gonna get
across to him that he was in the fault. So

(01:00:35):
he went up to him and he said. Uncle Tom said, uh,
I've investigated the accident, and said it's pretty conclusive as
to what happened. And he said, I'd like to have
your version of what happened here. Uncle Tom said, well,
I said I was headed over to my comb. We're
gonna get me a hair cut, gonna get some grocers,
and said, I come down this road all time. Everybody knows.
Said and then this idiot from Baton Rouge comes flying

(01:00:58):
through him and he hits me, tears my car up,
and said that's what happened in the state trooper said
he didn't know how he was going to explain next
to Uncle Tom, but he said, Uncle Tom said, I'm
gonna I'm gonna have to tell you now. I said,
I've investigated accident. He said, uh, it's my deedy to
inform you. I'm gonna have to give you a citation.
And Uncle Tom said, well, son, I appreciate it's mighty
nice of you. Know, said I don't know nothing about Afford,

(01:01:20):
said I never did like a Chrystler product, and said
I ain't never rolled in or drove a citation. And
if it's all right with everybody was involved. I'd rather
have another chivallet, uh. But Jerry rowled when I told him.
He said, that's going in my next man. That's going
in my next album. And and that was the last

(01:01:43):
night that he ever was at home. We talked a
long time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
In the foreword of the book Stories from Home, Willie
Morris says, quote, all our distinguished American humorists have been
serious people, their hearts as rueful as they are married.
I'm funny because I'm sad, It was attributed to Mark Twain,
and I'm sad because I'm funny. Jerry Klower is an

(01:02:12):
artist of deep values, values which yet exist in our civilization.
Hard work, loyalty, honesty, community, family, friendship, generosity, love, and
with all a vibrant aversion to the hypocritical, the bogus,
and the unpitying, not to mention an instinctual distaste for
cynical barbers, dilatory hitchhikers, and all souls of greed. He

(01:02:37):
understands the world because he assiduously lived it. End of quote.
Jerry Klower was a complex and brilliant man, deeply connected
to place, sure in his identity, loyal to his people,
but also.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
Intolerant of its errors. He gave voice to the.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
South and dignity to a group of people coming out
of a rough time, people often misunderstood by the nation.
He was deeply connected to the land as a hunter
and fisherman, and attributed his time in the Coonwoods to
building the fabric of his character, a throwback to the
ideology that Daniel Boone's legacy ushered into the American psyche.

(01:03:18):
Like I said from the beginning of our series on
Where the Red Fern Grows, I'm fascinated when hunting touches
pop culture in positive ways. Just like Wilson Rawls, Jerry
wrapped up our way of life and put it in
a human story, and people loved it. As we look
to the future of hunting and rural life, I think

(01:03:39):
we have a pattern here. We've got to have a
deep love of the land, its wildness, and its critters,
but we've also got to love the people that live
from its bounty. Wildness only makes sense to people that
don't know it firsthand when it's wrapped in.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
The life of a human.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
So we like Jerry, have to become better storytellers, storytellers
of the human experience because stories carry our culture.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Thanks so much for listening to Bear Grease.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
You can listen to all Jerry's albums on all the
major streaming platforms and you're sure to get a laugh
out of it. Please share our podcast with your in
laws and your crazy hillbilly neighbors this week. We'll talk
to you next time on the Bear Grease Render. Happy
New Year, everybody, see you in twenty twenty six.