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Stirring Up Additional Success with a Southern Flavor by Randall Franks and Shirley Smith

Stirring Up Additional Success with a Southern Flavor by Randall Franks and Shirley Smith $18 plus $5 S & H The Catoosa Citizens for Literacy revamps its popular cookbook Stirring Up Additional Success with a Southern Flavor offering a variety of choices from celebrities and Catoosa County residents. Entertainer, actor, author and syndicated columnist Randall […]

Stirring Up Success with a Southern Flavor by Randall Franks and Shirley Smith

Stirring Up Success with a Southern Flavor by Randall Franks and Shirley Smith $18 plus $5 S&H The Catoosa Citizens for Literacy releases its popular cookbook Stirring Up Success with a Southern Flavor offering a variety of choices from celebrities and Catoosa County residents. Entertainer, actor, author and syndicated columnist Randall Franks, “Officer Randy Goode” […]

Remembering the legendary Ralph Stanley

When I started as a disc jockey in radio at WRFG in Atlanta, Ga., the influence of musical preferences of the hosts T.P.  and Sandra Hollomon of the Bluegrass Festival impacted me with every drop of needle. I had known the music of the Stanley Brothers since I began listening to mountain music and as […]

If dust collects, find a broom

I covered the cloth in furniture polish and pushed it across the top of the wardrobe removing each object perched there and giving it a good going over. When I was a boy, I always wondered what was on top of the wardrobe because I couldn’t see it. Now I wish I didn’t. Dust seems […]

I walk behind the mower, therefore I am

When I began my working experience, I always looked forward to the arrival of warm weather. I could hear my wallet growing exponentially with each inch rise of the green, green grass of home. Well, maybe more like the neighbors’ grass since I didn’t get paid for mowing our yard. When I was about 10, […]

The freedom of nothing left to prove

It seems so much of our life is spent working to prove something to someone else. In our early years we aspire to gain the approval of our parents or key mentors that wish to see us succeed in education, sports, music or whatever dream they hold for us or share with us. Sometimes, it’s […]

2016 Randall Franks Trophy Winner

Maddie Denton (second from right) of Murfreesboro, Tenn. won the Randall Franks Trophy at the 1890s Day Old Time Fiddle Convention May 28, 2016. In the fiddle off, she faced Mark Ralph (third from left) of Somerville, Ala. winner of the 51 and up category, who won second, Andrew Lin (second from left) of Lexington, […]

Randall Franks strives to “Keep ‘Em Smilin’” with his new Christian music and comedy CD

  International Bluegrass Music Museum Legend and country humorist Randall Franks, “Officer Randy Goode” from TV’s “In the Heat of the Night,” returns to his Southern gospel music roots with his new CD “Keep ‘Em Smilin’.” Franks became the first solo bluegrass artist to reach the top rankings of the Christian music sales charts with […]

The needle is stuck again

I have seen numerous members of my family and friends go through the ups and downs of chronic illnesses, and watched as they struggled with tasks which once they had performed with ease. When I was just a child, volunteering in a local nursing home, I met a woman who was around eighty at the […]

Loving beyond worldly measure

Some of the most difficult times to watch are when someone we know is trying to be there for a loved one when he or she is coming to the end of his or her journey. As I think back through the years, I remember watching my mother and father as they reached out to […]