McCOMB — Former Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale, one of my favorite speakers, was at the McComb Rotary Club Wednesday, not for the first time, and I hope not the last.
He speculates he’s spoken to more Rotary clubs than anyone else in history, and he may be right. He was in public office for 32 years, and he was always inclined to accept speaking engagements when possible.
He’s such an entertaining speaker, he got a lot of invitations too. I suspect he still does.
Now in public relations, Dale can spin yarns about country churches, sports and a variety of other subjects.
But he’s best at the ones he tells about Mississippi politicians, some of which he used Wednesday.
One involved the late Cliff Finch, who in 1975 came out of near political obscurity to upset William Winter in the Mississippi governor’s race.
Finch won by putting together an unlikely coalition of African-Americans and rural whites in a populist campaign that featured the candidate driving a bulldozer, sacking groceries and carrying a lunch box.
Dale opines that the two most surprised people the day after the election were Finch and Winter, who was much better known and who would be elected governor four years later.
Soon after the election, Dale said, Finch was meeting with civil rights leader Charles Evers, one of his supporters. Evers allowed that he and his allies wanted more blacks appointed to state government positions.
Finch, attempting to sound gubernatorial, replied that he planned to make appointments based on qualifications.
“Damn qualifications,” Evers said. “If we had been looking for qualifications, we’d have elected William Winter.”
Another story Dale told was about an unnamed legislator who, like some are today, was alarmed at the number of immigrants in this country. He introduced a bill calling for English to be the official language of Mississippi.
Noting that he read the King James version of the Bible every night, the lawmaker said, “If the English language was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for me.”
Of course any humorous speech about Mississippi politicians would have to include the late Gov. Ross Barnett.
Barnett had a habit of working a crowd, shaking hands with everyone in sight and asking about a family member, whether he knew them or not.
At the Neshoba County Fair he shook hands with a young man and inquired, “How’s your daddy?” to which the man replied, “He’s dead.” Barnett kept on shaking hands and encountered the same man again, asking the same question. “He’s still dead,” the man said.
