Excerpts, interviews and stories about people Jack has met on his journeys.
“I was raped from age three and throughout my childhood,” Lynn Wellman, the founder of ‘Stop Feeding the Predators’ (SFTP) stated in my interview with her. “It was not by the same person over and over, but various people who were trusted by my family.” Wellman’s story of abuse evolved […]
When I asked the legendary comedian Jerry Lewis, who was 83, what the key to happiness is for him, he immediately had an answer. “Do you remember when you were nine years old?” he smiled. “Always be the person you were when you were nine.” I definitely was […]
I purposely haven’t had a haircut in a while because I wanted to fulfill a boyhood dream of getting it trimmed at Floyd’s Barbershop in Mayberry. If Sheriff and Opie Taylor, Deputy Fife, Gomer and Goober liked it there, it was good enough for me. On “The Andy […]
It was raining our first day in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, so we decided on attending indoor venues. One was Alcatraz East and the other was Buttonwillow Civil War Theater. We thought it was going to be a Civil War documentary film, but was an actual play. It turned […]
“Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935 to Vernon and Gladys Presley,” the sweet lady sitting on the front porch swing stayed on script. “Born in this two-room house built by his father, grandfather and uncle, Elvis was one of twin brothers born […]
Eleven-year-old Sterling Smith was keen at being idle and solemn about his watermelon business. Those two qualities worked together for the young boy during the hot Mississippi summer of 1973 when he noticed four cars parading toward his watermelon stand on Highway 51 going northbound one scalding afternoon. […]
On April 18, 1972. I was setting in Hemisfair Arena with Patti Sanders and Sandie Bailey as the preshow began for Elvis Presley’s concert in San Antonio. This was my first of half a dozen times I’d see him perform and had no idea how much that concert […]
Elvis & B.B. King and racism-Interview with Jack Dennis, 2010 B.B. King knew “the definitive truth about Elvis Presley and racism.” ‘. ‘Let me tell you the definitive truth about Elvis Presley and racism’, The King of the Blues, B.B. King said in 2010. ‘With Elvis, there was not a […]
In 1976, I spent a week in Memphis meeting and interviewing as many Elvis Presley fans, employees and family members as I could. Lucky for me, I was able to actually have a brief interview with Elvis, which was not an easy task for a 20-year-old journalist from […]
1968 was deemed the beginning of the ‘Age of Aquarius’ by some, but honestly, it was a tough year. I was an awkward preteen, not turning 13 until December. In San Antonio, we held the World’s Fair, Hemisfair 68, from April 6 to October 6. The day I’ll […]
The first celebrity tour bus I ever saw was outside the Municipal Auditorium in San Antonio. Virginia Grimmett, a dear family friend, pointed it out: “Look Jackie, it’s Claude Kings and Don Gibson’s bus,” she gestured. “I think Minnie Pearl might be in there too.” As a 7 […]
May 14th marked the anniversary of the day B.B. King died during his sleep in Las Vegas in 2015. On May 27, 2015 his body was flown to Memphis where a bass band marched in front of his hearse for the funeral procession down Beale Street. They played […]
