- From the two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, the Mississippi Arts Commission presents the 2025 Governor's Arts Awards with Governor Tate Reeves host Daniella Oropeza Arts Commission Director David Lewis and the 2025 Governor's Arts Awards recipients.

Yours truly, Walt Grayson, Eddie Cotton, Jr. Robert Poore, Tate Taylor, Jane Hiatt, and the Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band.

♪ ♪ ♪ Yes, I Going home on the morning train.

♪ I'm going home on the morning train.

♪ I'm going home.

I'm going home.

I'm going home on the morning train ♪ The evening train may be too.

♪ Evening train.

Evening Train.

Evening train may be too late.

♪ Back Back train and get your load.

♪ Back Back train and get your load.

♪ I'm going home on the morning train ♪ I'm going home on the morning train ♪ Back Back train and get your load.

(applause) ♪ Back Back train and get your load.

♪ I'm going home on the morning train ♪ I'm going home on the morning train ♪ Evening train may be too late.

♪ Evening train may be too late.

Everybody clap your hands with me ♪ fife music Thank you.

(applause) - Hello, and welcome to the 2025 Governor's Arts Awards.

I'm Daniela Oropeza, your host for this evening's celebration for 37 years, the Mississippi Arts Commission, in partnership with the Governor's Office honors a group of artists who have made noteworthy contributions or achieved artistic excellence in their field.

Over the next hour, we will hear from six recipients who have made an impact through their work and enjoy performances like we all just witnessed by the Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band.

You just heard "Morning Train" from their 2024 album, Evolution of Fife and Drum Music 2 Hickahala Creek.

Now please join me in welcoming Mississippi Arts Commission's executive director David Lewis.

(applause) - Thank you Daniela for being with us this evening and for the warm introduction.

Hello everyone and welcome to the 2025 Governor's Arts Awards.

We wanna extend a special thank you to Governor Tate Reeves and First Lady Ely Reeves.

We are delighted to continue our work together to honor these exceptional Mississippians.

I often tell people you can't tell a good Mississippi story without talking about the arts.

We have such a rich legacy of excellence in the arts and tonight is about lifting that up.

In fact, this year marks celebrations for many of our titans with the centennial of B.B.

King and Medgar Evers alongside the 90th birthday of Elvis Presley.

We hope tonight's stories about our six exceptional recipients will continue to inspire future generations of creatives.

As you will see this evening, the arts are alive and thriving in Mississippi and we owe a lot of that to the legacy of support from our elected officials, lawmakers, sponsors, and fellow patrons and partners in the arts.

Thank you for continuing to support such a vital part of what makes Mississippi a leader in the arts.

I'm gonna take a moment to thank those who have nominated this year's recipients and thank you to those who served on the selection jury.

Will you please stand to be recognized (applause) Every year MAC proudly partners with Mississippi Public Broadcasting to produce the Governor's Arts Awards and share our honorees stories statewide and beyond.

Join me in thanking MPB for dedication to high quality programming that reflects our state.

(applause) Now, please help me welcome the 65th governor of the state of Mississippi, the Honorable Tate Reeves.

(applause) - Well, thank you David and your entire team.

Thank you for what you do and good evening.

It's great to be back at the Governor's Arts Awards.

Ely and I are excited to be here with you tonight and I are excited as we celebrate the arts and quite frankly, an incredible group of honorees.

As we all know, Mississippi is blessed with a plethora of phenomenal artists who call Mississippi Home.

In fact, one of our greatest contributions to society and to the world is our rich artistic legacy and culture.

Tonight's honorees join a long list of extraordinary Mississippians who left their mark and have also received this award.

Mississippians and artists like B.B.

King, Eudora Welty, Leonte Price, Wyatt Waters, and Margaret Walker just to name a few.

Tonight we celebrate a landscape architect whose work is enjoyed by Mississippians and visitors alike.

A blues musician with roots that run deep in gospel and deep in the church, a fife and drum band whose tradition spans generations.

A legendary storyteller we all know and have invited into our homes over the years, a film director whose impact on Mississippi goes far beyond the silver screen and an arts patron whose support for the arts and Mississippi spans decades.

These awards being given tonight are a recognition of the indelible impact that these honorees have had on the great state of Mississippi.

It is our great privilege to recognize our award recipients at the 37th Governor's Arts Awards to all our honorees tonight.

Thank you all our honorees for the gift of your time and the gift of your creativity.

Congratulations again on this incredible accomplishment, and may God bless the great state of Mississippi.

Thank you.

(applause) - Thank you, Governor.

Robert Poore is an award-winning landscape architect and visual artist whose career spans 40 years.

Robert's acute understanding of the relationship between art and nature has guided him to create some of Mississippi's most recognized public spaces.

Let's take a look at some of the places Robert Poore has had a hand in bringing to life.

♪♪ - I am Robert Poore.

I dabble in the arts and uh, I do a lot of different things.

But as a landscape architect, I get to, uh, express myself quite extraordinarily in the environment.

My philosophy is that everything is connected to everything else.

That's about the simplest definition that you can give of ecology.

I learned to do this actually in architecture school at Mississippi State.

Georgia Tech, I went there first and they taught me structures and I went to Mississippi State and they taught me space.

And space is the totality of my art in the environment.

- Robert Poore is from Mississippi and he understands Mississippi.

He has worked on some of the most prestigious public landscapes in the state.

A lot of museum work, including here at the Mississippi Children's Museum, the Mississippi Museum of Art.

Robert Poore received a Fellows Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects this past year.

It's a national award and shows the quality and character of the work that he has.

- Robert Poore is the landscape architect we hired back in 2018, when we incorporated, to help us envision a master plan and to help us really understand how Lee Tartt Nature Preserve could reach its full potential.

I mean, Robert opened my eyes in the first five minutes and kind of put answers to questions I had had for all these years and made it so simple.

He made it sound simple, but I knew he was implying something really great and big, which is what I think great art does.

- I spent most of my life in nature, even months at a time as my wife can account for, and I would be out there by myself on that site.

Just me and nature.

- He's like a poet of the landscape.

He just feels, absorbs, and then somehow through a magical process is able to turn that into a design that other people feel.

- My inspiration over the last few years has been my children, and my grandchildren.

To leave a legacy that's worthwhile for them to remember me by.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Robert Poore.

(applause) - I am very humbled by the things my humble close friends have said about me in there, uh, in this film.

And, uh, I learned a long time ago.

You start thanking people and giving names.

You leave somebody out.

So I wrote this little quick little thing.

Life is a journey connected and intertwined stories of the people you meet along your journey.

And I would like to thank all the people I met along my journey.

You made this day possible.

Thank you all.

(applause) - The Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band has a history spanning generations.

The band's founder Othar Turner began the tradition, which is carried on today by his granddaughter, Sharde Thomas Mallory and her husband, and drummer Chris Mallory.

The band has performed worldwide and performs annually at the Mississippi Goat Picnic.

Now in its 75th year, Sharde and Chris have dedicated their lives to educating the world and new generations about fife and drum music.

Let's learn more about the tradition of the Rising Stars Fife and Drum band.

♪♪ - My name is Sharde' Thomas Mallory.

- And I'm Chris Mallory.

- Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band.

And we keep that traditional feel that, um, my grandfather, Othar Turner, started many, many years ago with fife and drum music.

The Rising Stars came to be, at first, it started out as Rising Star, uh, with Othar Turner being the leader.

And of course after he passed, I wanted to, you know, do something different and make the band my own.

'cause each band member was a star in their own way.

So we called it Rising Stars.

- About 10 years ago, I was in Memphis, Tennessee at the Levitt Shell venue and I saw the Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band for the first time there, and they did this really unique thing where they left the stage and walked around the crowd with the drums and playing the fife music.

And people were just clapping and dancing in their own ways.

And then to find out that that type music originates, or at least has a strong history in my home community around Coldwater, Take County and Panola County.

♪♪ - The Goat Picnic is formerly known as the Othar Turner Family Picnic.

And over the years, it got bigger and bigger and we changed the name to not only pay homage to who he was, the GOAT, the greatest of all time, but it speaks to everything that the picnic was based around, which was the main part, we eat goat meat.

- It's being passed down now through my nieces, nephews, my cousins, and my kids.

And when they see the energy that we bring to it, like they definitely want to be a part of it.

- Rising Stars Fife and Drum, they bring so much joy and they bring so much motion and emotion to everyone that witnesses and hears them.

If I could have it my way, they would be playing shows all over all the time.

We need music.

Music heals and music brings joy and Rising Stars bring it every time.

(applause and cheers) - What does it mean for my family and I, for The Rising Stars to be honored with the Governor's Arts Awards?

It's a blessing.

Granddaddy Othar received it in 1993 and for the Rising Stars to receive it in 2025.

It's amazing!

- Ladies and gentlemen, Sharde Thomas Mallory and Chris Mallory of the Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band.

(applause) - Thank you.

I gotta get myself together after that.

Um, first all praises and thanks to God.

Um, without him, none of this will be possible.

Um, thanks to Granddaddy Othar for passing the torch to me at such a young age.

I didn't have a clue at what I was doing, but um, apparently he saw some type of light in me at that age.

Thanks to, um, my husband Chris for jumping on this wave with me 10 years ago and accepting all of the challenges that I'm pretty sure he didn't have a clue that came with being just a drummer.

But, um, look where we are today.

Thanks to my family, my friends, it's a lot of friends and family that's in the crowd today to my immediate family.

Thank you for your continued support.

Thank you for, um, celebrating us tonight and experiencing and sharing this special moment with us.

Um, we are a fight for drum band that breaks all of the rules we create outside of the lines, outside of the boxes.

And special thanks to the Mississippi Arts Commission for creating a platform for us to continue to share our fife and drum tradition and our story with the world.

Sharde has summed it all up.

Uh, the only person left to thank thank you Mississippi.

Mississippi, thank you for allowing us to be artists.

Yes, thank you so much.

(applause) - Known for his work on films and television series, including "The Help", "Get On Up", "Ma" and "Palm Royale."

This producer and director has brought iconic Mississippi locals to the silver screen.

Through his dedication to on-location filming and his commitment to historic preservation and community in Natchez, Tate Taylor has made a lasting impact on our local economies beyond the film industry.

It's time to bring the director in front of the camera and learn more about Tate Taylor.

- My name is Tate Taylor.

I'm a resident of Mississippi and I am a film director, writer, producer, as well as television.

I sold jet fuel right out of college and what happened is they were filming The Firm in Memphis where I lived.

I would crawl in the bushes and watch them film and I immediately hated my job and I wanted to be a part of that industry.

I drove out to LA in 1996 and went out there and my dream was to become a member of the Saturday Night Live cast.

That was my entire goal.

Many, if not most of the cast members all came from an improv group.

Now The Groundlings was a really famous one.

I had, like Melissa McCarthy was in my class, and so I would write these sketches that were supposed to star me and I would barely be in them 'cause I had so much fun making other people play these characters that I've created.

Then The Groundlings instructor, he'd go, "I think maybe you wanna be a filmmaker."

I love filming on location, like when I shot The Help, you can't really fake Mississippi, so that's why I shot it here.

- The Help, Get On Up , Ma, Breaking News in Yuba County.

All filmed here in his home state.

So he is known for being a great filmmaker, a very dedicated Mississippian, but also a community-creator.

Anyone in Natchez or Church Hill probably thinks of him more than film as building this community and really pouring back into the community that he loves.

- I had always wanted to rescue an old home, and so I found a home in Church Hill, Mississippi.

I didn't really pick Natchez for any other reason than that I found my home first.

- He loves when he's doing a movie, especially bringing them all to Mississippi.

Like, he wants to host the cast and crew in his house and cook a meal for 'em.

There's no chef being brought in and very much like Tate loving people through food.

- The way I work is based on fellowship and breaking bread and having cocktails and being in a very relaxed, non-corporate environment.

- I look around sometimes at these events that are at his house and the just wide range of folks that are there from a small town mayor, to a movie star, to a director, to you know, so many different people.

People that work in Natchez, people that are helping him in his restaurant.

Everybody's the same in Church Hill.

- I think Mississippians are born storytellers just because our lineage.

We've all got that crazy aunt.

I mean, if I was to write down-- you know, put a character in a film that I know personally, I would be told it was too broad and made up and not possible.

That's what Mississippi has.

You have to actually pull back from the color of some of these characters.

That's really cool.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Tate Taylor.

(applause) - Good evening everyone.

Um, as a proud Mississippian, I'm really, truly honored to be recognized among such remarkable individuals as the people I'm with who share the same soil and spirit of creativity that runs so deep in our great state.

Mississippi has always been a fertile ground for unique vibrant artistry.

From storytelling to music, writing, to design.

Tonight as a testament to the power of our creativity, my passion for storytelling has driven my journey and alongside filmmaking, my mission has been clear.

Cultivating a thriving infrastructure for young Mississippians at home.

I believe our talented youth should be able to learn, grow, and express themselves without needing to leave the state that we all cherish.

I want to express my thanks to Governor Reeves for this incredible honor.

Your support fuels our shared vision of Mississippi's artistic future.

I also wanna thank Amanda Wells, Nathan Wells, Robin Tannahill, Cleta Ellington, John Norris, and my mom who's somewhere.

Your efforts to bring awareness to my career are sincerely appreciated and they have brought me here tonight.

Let us continue to nurture our brilliant creative minds here in our home state where they belong.

Long lived filmmaking in Mississippi and thank you again for this honor.

(applause) - Thank you Mr. Taylor.

Tonight we have the Arts Award combo.

Help me welcome our band leader and 2021 Governor's Arts recipient, Raphael Semmes on Bass Bill Perry on keyboard, and Barry Leach on guitar.

Let's hear it for the band.

(applause) At this time we'd like to take a moment to recognize the past Governor's Arts Award recipients.

Please stand if you have received a Governor's Arts Award or represent an organization that has received one.

(applause) We also want to take a moment to remember those Governor's Arts Awards recipients who have passed away since our last ceremony.

Dr. London Branch, who was a recipient in 2019 and Lester Center Wilson, who received the award in 2001.

Their legacies to the arts in Mississippi.

Endure legacy is a cornerstone of the Governor's Arts Awards, embodying inspiration and lasting impact.

Our next award celebrates the legacy of the late Steven C. Eds.

Mr. Eds served as an arts commissioner and board chairman for 11 years.

The award reflects his longstanding and deep support for the commission and the arts.

Statewide, the 2025 recipient of the Steven C. Eds Patron of the Arts Award is an arts titan whose leadership and dedication to innovation and the arts in Mississippi is still being felt to this day.

From Jubilee Jam to Mississippi Whole Schools.

From the Women's Foundation to the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jane Hiatt has been at the foundation of our state's leading arts institutions and experiences.

Let's hear from Jane and her friends about what it takes to bring the arts alive.

♪♪ - I'm Jane Hiatt.

Right now, I mostly give away money, take walks, read great literature, visit with friends, but there's a lot to my past.

(laughs) After the war, with the baby boomers starting in school, arts were basically dropped, and I missed that.

So it's been a lifelong pursuit of mine all the way through college at Chapel Hill.

I never missed any kind of performance that was put on no matter what it was.

By '85, I was selected to be the head of the Arts Alliance.

That really got me into tune with all the arts organizations, the artists, and the people.

- She invented Jubilee Jam.

There were 70,000 people in downtown Jackson over a weekend.

Imagine if we had that again.

She knew how to build energy and coalesce people around really joy-filled experiences together.

And she continued that on a statewide level at the Arts Commission.

- Welcome to ARTifacts.

We are here in Jackson's old capitol building, preparing for the 1994 Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts.

We were even able to persuade the National Endowment for the Arts to change its guidelines to fund that program.

We called the Whole Schools Project, and I'm so thrilled to know that that is still going on.

- It is really hard to overstate the impact that she's had on the arts sector in Mississippi, but it goes beyond that because she also has been such an advocate for charitable work from the Community Foundation's perspective.

We also know her as a founder of what's now the Women's Foundation.

That championship of individual achievement, opportunity, excellence, are really at the heart of everything that she does.

- Mississippi gets dinged for a lot of things, but we have a good art scene, and someone like Jane is just such a core part of that.

- To me, Mississippi culture is so multi-layered and it's so diverse within the state.

It just breeds a different kind of artist who can be more original.

That's the best way I can say it.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Jane Hiatt.

(applause) - It's great to be back in Mississippi, uh, where my heart still is.

I'm amazed at the reason that I'm here.

It's when I presented this program for about six years, it never entered my mind that I could be here as a recipient.

And when I see the things done by the other recipients here, I'm just amazed all over again about the talent and dedication and heart that is in the state with the people who, even if they left here are always like that everywhere they are.

And I love that.

I accept this award though.

And by the way, I have to say Steve Eds, I knew as a friend and a colleague and working on boards and things, and so I'm especially proud for that.

But I could never be getting the Patron Award if it were not for my late husband, Dr. Wood C. Hiatt, who, uh, getting an inheritance decided that it should go to charity.

And I knew about the Fledgling Community Foundation.

So we set up a fund there and we keep giving and giving and giving out of that.

We've already given away twice as much as we put in, and it's worth a lot more than we put in the beauty of it.

My son and granddaughter are here and they will take over that role for directing those funds after me.

We've had good conversations.

I must honor my grandmother, though we all think about especially getting to be this s age, we think about what, what made us, who are we?

She was my Sunday school teacher for about six years and I spent an awful lot of time with her.

One day when I was upset about a little trivial thing, she said, "Jane, what matters is what matters in 200 years."

I said, "what 200 years?

We'll all be dead."

She just smiled and walked away, leaving for me to figure that out by myself.

And that's what led me to a life of public service, a life of nonprofit work, and particularly to the arts because that's what lasts and gives us fresh perspectives on everything about who we are as human beings and as different societies and civilizations.

And so I thank my grandmother for giving me a life of fulfillment and I thank each and every one of you.

(applause) - As Robert Poore so eloquently said earlier, everything is connected to everything else.

And we must take a moment to draw some excellent connections between a few of tonight's recipients.

As we just learned, Jane Hiatt was the former executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission and brought this very ceremony into a new stratosphere of prominence under her direction.

In 1992, the Crosby Arboretum received the Governor's Award, a project that involved an inspired and emerging Robert Poore.

One year later, Othar Turner received the award and closed the ceremony leading attendees out of The Old Capitol with a performance by The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band.

It was only fitting that we had The Rising Stars Fife and Drum lead us in the ceremony tonight.

Everything is indeed connected.

(applause) Gospel music in the church, jazz education at JSU and Blues from his local club scene.

All of these influences culminated in a unique sound and vibrant music career.

For our next recipient, let's buckle up for a ride from the church pew to the Juke joint with Renaissance Bluesman Eddie Cotton Jr. with Renaissance Bluesman Eddie Cotton Jr. - Hi, my name is Eddie Cotton, Jr., and I am a musician by trade.

♪♪ I've been playing music all of my life.

My first day of my life that I knew I was in this world, I was standing up in the church while they were shouting, what you call a praise break, now.

And that's when I realized I was in the world when I was in church.

I was a musician for the Sunshine Band out at Zion, Chapel in Bolton, Mississippi.

So I started playing drums as, you know, as long as I can remember, I've been participating in the music department.

I started playing guitar when I was about six.

When I was 13 years old, I went to my first national convocation.

My daddy bought me a tape recorder.

He said, "Junior, I want you to listen to those musicians up there.

I want you to tape 'em and learn what they doing and come back to church and play it.

And when they started playing, I had heard music before, but I heard it right.

I saw the right way it ought to make you feel.

♪♪ - When I first heard Eddie play, I think it was at a club or somewhere.

And uh, I talked to him.

I said, "You uh?..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm in the 12th grade.'

"What, what you getting ready to do?"

He said, "I want to go to college."

I said, "You wanna go to Jackson State?"

He said, "Yes, sir."

I said, "You go to Jackson State, I'll give you a scholarship."

- When I got to Jackson State, it just opened my eyes to a whole world.

And then I got a chance to mix the two worlds together.

- And Eddie, he was the type of person that he would take it to the max.

You know, he was just like B.B.

King, or one of those great guitar players, to me.

- He's that good a musician.

And, um, I got to go to Germany with him.

- We've been to Canada, France, Finland, uh, Norway, Switzerland, Germany.

- And to actually see people from another country respond to his music was, it just, it touched my heart because they weren't understanding, necessarily, the words he was singing, but it was that beat.

It was that guitar playing.

- My whole intent is to take them to church.

(laughing) Give 'em that church experience through what I'm doing.

I came to rock.

I wanna rock that crowd!

(loud applause) -Ladies and gentlemen, Eddie Cotton, Jr. (applause) - Good evening, everyone.

They told me to keep it at two minutes, so I'm going to get going.

I want to give honor, first of all, give honor to the Governor, First Lady Reeves, um, Mississippi Arts Commission.

And I have some friends and family here.

I think I need to recognize them.

I want to recognize them.

Will y'all bear with me?

First I have, if God didn't gimme anything else, he gave me one of the greatest, y'all say mothers.

I say mamas in the world.

Ms. Mary Ann Cotton.

(applause) I'm glad to have my sister Bernadine Cotton and every king needs a queen.

Ms. Johnny Dawson.

I want to thank um, Myron Bennett.

John Gina's, Jesse Worley.

For the last 30 years they've been with me and believe in everything I tell 'em.

Irish Barnes is here.

I want to thank Ms. Peggy Brown and the Central City Blues Society for nominating, having me nominated.

Thank you baby.

I wanna thank Shirley Wairing, uh, the Vicksburg Blues Society.

Um, I wanna thank people who've helped me along the way.

I see Senator John Horhn, which is like a big brother to me, and I want to thank Dr. Russell Thomas, even though I made a 13 on the a ACT test, he gave me a scholarship anyway.

Thank you so much, doc, doc, that that scholarship changed my life.

And, um, I have a business partner here, Mr. Mike Franscorner.

And um, I saw Ray Nielsen's name and I don't know if he made it, but I'm glad for the Bottle Neck Blues Bar.

That is my stomping ground.

So whoever bought casinos to Mississippi, thank you very much.

So I'm sure I missed somebody, but I did not mean to.

So when you see Eddie Cotton, basically all I am is a church boy delivered by the blues.

- And now please help me welcome Eddie Cotton Jr. And the Arts Awards combo with special guest Maya Kyles on the drums, they'll play, Don't Move From The Mirror, from Eddie's latest album, The Mirror.

(applause) ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Does it bother you ♪ ♪ that you don't drive the finest car?

♪ ♪ Or maybe you don't get the attention ♪ ♪ of a rock star, ♪ ♪ but there's no greater feeling, ♪ ♪ no greater feeling in the world, ♪ ♪ of knowing ♪ ♪ just who you are.

♪ ♪ Don't move from the mirror.

♪ ♪ Don't move ♪ ♪ from the mirror.

♪ ♪ Don't you move from the mirror ♪ ♪ until you like what you see, ♪ ♪ until you like what you see.

♪ ♪ I am gonna share ♪ ♪ some valuable advice, ♪ ♪ but this knowledge is not for free.

♪ ♪ Someone paid the price.

♪ ♪ Don't you move from the mirror ♪ ♪ don't move ♪ ♪ from the mirror.

♪ ♪ Don't you move from the mirror.

♪ ♪ Until you like what you see.

♪ Can I play the blues one time?

(audience cheers) ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ (cheers and applause) ♪♪ ♪♪ (cheers and applause) - I told you they would have y'all moving.

Now storytelling is about human connection.

One of Mississippi's greatest storytellers is a face and a voice familiar in all of our homes.

Our Lifetime Achievement award winner has spent his career focused on the rich stories of Mississippi's people, places and things through radio, television and books, giving Mississippians a greater understanding about the place we all call home.

Join us on the front porch to hear from the storyteller himself, Walt Grayson.

♪♪ - I'm Walt Grayson.

I'm a news anchor.

I'm a feature reporter, a photographer, a writer, and then clean up when the day's over.

My first experience with storytelling was actually with story-listening.

My older aunts and uncles, you know, they would sit around at night after the dishes were done and just tell stories about the old days, tell stories about each other, tell stories on each other.

That's a little bit different than about.

Um, and it was very entertaining.

(radio static) (guitar music) But I was also very interested in radio.

My love of radio came from listening to radio.

Not rock-and-roll radio and things like that, but we had an old short- wave radio at the house.

To me, this was just this side of magical to be able-- for somebody in Moscow to be speaking and me listening to it in my house in Greenville, Mississippi.

(static) I wanted to be in broadcasting.

Back in those days, it wasn't a long leap between radio and television.

Matter of fact, I may have been one of the last ones that made the jump from radio over to tv.

It was pretty specialized by the time I got into it, you were either gonna be a disc jockey or you were gonna be a weatherman or a journalist or something like that.

And I got fired in radio and the first job I could find was in television, so.... Hi, welcome to Mississippi Roads.

I'm Walt Grayson.

We're at the Brandon Amphitheater this week.

At the Blue Front Cafe in downtown Bentonia.

We're in Brent's Drugs in the Fondren area of Jackson.

- My dad has written, uh, about four books and they've always been about Mississippi and just a wonderful side of Mississippi.

I told him one time, he could take a trash can on the side of the road and make poetry about it.

- He's a little bit of a ham, he is.

You have to be a ham to be a storyteller like that, right?

You have to want someone to hear the stories, and he really does.

And that's why he's never gonna quit.

- They expect to serve about 1,500 of these dudie burgers today at the festival-- I don't talk to a whole lot of celebrities.

I get excited about people who have odd hobbies and I wanna find out why.

- The best fried chicken in the world.

- So look out, Colonel.

The King has been crowned.

- Folks calling me.

"I saw you on TV last night!"

And then I got the video from Walt.

He changed my life and I never know who's coming through the door.

And it's amazing who comes through this door from every walk of life, from everywhere.

And I call him to myself an angel, 'cause he changed my life.

- You talk to people and they're like, "I don't have a bad thing to say about Walt Grayson."

You know, it's always just positive.

I think that's gonna be mostly his legacy, is just when people remember him, they're going to just remember the good that he brought.

- Everybody has a story.

All you have to do is be patient enough and know the right questions to ask and dig down deep enough and they'll finally break loose and tell you what it is.

And usually, it's pretty fascinating.

- Ladies and gentlemen, the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Walt Grayson.

(applause) - Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the award.

Um, I have to tell you, uh, an incident that happened tonight when I came in, I was talking to, um, Peggy Brown.

Peggy was, we were talking about the Blues Night, the Monday Blues Night down at Hal and Mal's.

And, uh, so I was thinking, well, got me a story right there and then she asked me if I could sing.

And until Mr. Cotton got up here, I thought I could.

So I'll stand behind the camera.

Uh, I do look for stories pretty much everywhere I go.

Uh, that's another thing I've got, I've got five new stories right down here on the front, and I'll keep contacting y'all later.

I have fun going around talking to people, uh, about what they are interested in.

And then just taking it, putting it on television.

And I learned some interesting things about life.

And I'll tell you one of the more kind of interesting ones.

I was up in Neshoba County one time.

Uh, there was a fellow up there who was a whittler.

He made, you know, a little bitty intricate whittling things, but he had been commissioned to do a totem pole, which was really out of his comfort zone.

But he made the totem pole and he did a pretty good job of it.

And I was interviewing him about it, and he showed me the totem pole.

He says, this makes two.

I said, what do you mean?

He says, this is my first and my last.

(laughter) And I was talking to him about his, his carvings, those little whittlings.

And I said, you know, I'd really be kinda scared to do that.

I'd be afraid I'd mess it up.

He said, oh, don't be scared to do anything.

You can take a piece of firewood, do anything you want to with it, and it'll still burn.

(laughter) You know, you take that kind of philosophy and hit light with it and just don't be scared to do anything.

Some of it will work, and if it burns, your enemies will love the flames.

So I wanna thank y'all for this award tonight.

I really feel like I go around telling other people's stories.

They're the artists and they're the geniuses.

And, and I'm tell you what, I'm the most fortunate television feature reporter in the nation because I'm in Mississippi.

Nobody has the stories like we have.

And I want to thank the, the governor for the Governor's Awards.

I wanna thank the Arts Commission.

I wanna thank everybody.

I wanna thank my daughter for nominating me and thank my wife for coming out with me tonight, Ms. Jo.

And thank y'all for letting me come into your homes as often as you do.

And thank you very much.

(applause) - A very special thanks to the selection jury for the Governor's Arts Awards and to our sponsors.

A huge thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

We could not do it without you.

And please join me in thanking Governor Reeves and First Lady Ely Reeves.

(applause) And let's give a big round of applause to our recipients, Eddie Cotton Jr. Jane Hiatt, Robert Poore, the Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band, Tate Taylor, and Walt Grayson.

(applause) For the Mississippi Arts Commission, I'm Daniela Oropeza and Eddie Cotton Jr. And the Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band, along with the Arts Awards Combo will play us out tonight.

Thank you everyone.

Keep celebrating the arts, - Testing, testing.

Look at the person next to you and tell 'em you may want to put your toes in your pocket.

♪♪ Come on, put your hands together.

Ow!

♪ Laying here beside my baby.

♪ ♪ Love just come a tumbling down.

♪ ♪ The girl knows just where to touch me.

♪ ♪ Turn my smile into a happy frown.

♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long, ♪ ♪ if it takes me all night long, I'll be stroking y'all ♪ ♪ like my back ain't got no bone.

♪ ♪ Bill.

Lemme hear you.

♪ ♪♪ ♪♪