Peckerwood Play

Alabama's Governor James ("Big Jim") Folsom, the woman-kissin'est chief executive any state ever had, can play peckerwood better than any shoeless redneck out of the back country. When he campaigned for office, his "Strawberry Pickers," a hillbilly band, followed him everywhere. He waved what he called a "suds bucket" for contributions and shouted, "You furnish the suds and ah'll do the scrubbing"--i.e., clean up the state. He said he kissed 50,000 women during his campaign.

Lately, Big Jim has been touring the state, fulminating against the "gotrocks" and the "big city boys." He has been angling for the defeat of a "self-starter" amendment to Alabama's constitution which would permit the legislature to go into session without his permission. In this campaign he has used a new trick to get attention: he has literally been lying down on the job.

One day in Greenville he decided to "rest," and forthwith dropped his 260 pounds, unevenly distributed on his 6 ft. 8 in. frame, on the floor of a courtroom. He did it again at Evergreen, and then outraged even his folksy constituents by getting drowsy on the sidewalk in front of a cafe in Atmore (see cut).

Last week, Big Jim went out of his whimsical way to whack the big city boys in Birmingham. He didn't have to lie down to do it, either. He simply made a suburban drug clerk president of the Jefferson County Commission, which runs the county. Birmingham is the county seat.

Appointee William Dee Kendrick, 40, of Fairfield, it seems, is a boyhood pal of Folsom's. The Governor thought it was rather a cute trick on his opponents.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.