John Spratt in Lancaster Friday with Mandy Powers Norrell and James Smith.
I ran up to Lancaster yesterday to catch James Smith’s announcement of Mandy Powers Norrell becoming his running mate (an excellent choice, by the way — I’ll post video later). One of the highlights of the day was seeing John Spratt, whom I hadn’t seen in years.
So I looked at this Tweet from the AP’s Jeffrey Collins with interest:
True story _ the first time I called John Spratt’s DC office for a story in 1998, he answered his office’s phone. I may or may not have thought for a brief time all U.S. House members did that. https://t.co/ssRF5d0OTv
— Jeffrey Collins (@JSCollinsAP) May 11, 2018
That kicked off a digression in my head (sort of my default mode, really) and I replied with this:
Irrelevant memory: In the ’80s, I called Rep. Ed Jones’ office. The Tennessee congressman answered it himself. I asked him about one of his votes. He paused. Then he asked me to call back and ask his press secretary…
— Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) May 12, 2018
Rob Godfrey, whom you’ll remember as Nikki Haley’s press guy, joined the conversation:
sounds like a reasonable request. was congressman jones responsive to reporters on facebook and twitter back then?
— Rob Godfrey (@RobGodfrey) May 12, 2018
I laughed and replied that Ed Jones was a nice guy (“Mr. Ed’s” campaign slogan was “The congressman from the heart of the district, with the district at heart”), but thinking on his feet wasn’t his strongest suit. Then Meg Kinnard said:
He was the first in Tenn. to use digital media (radio) to methodically communicate a messages to his constituents. He would have been all about some Twitter and Facebook. 😉
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) May 12, 2018
Meg is originally from Memphis, and knows that neck of the woods. I decided to take a stab in the dark — Meg’s the age of my kids, but I thought just maybe we’d have an acquaintance in common:
Meg, it’s all well before your time, but did you ever know his press guy, Kelly Sharbel? Or as one of my editors called him (fondly, as I think he had worked at our paper), Kelly Sharbelly?
— Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) May 12, 2018
To my surprise, she replied:
Indeed! Kelly is a dear friend who’s helping us with our research on Grandaddy’s biography. He and his wife have actually retired to SC and live in Myrtle Beach.
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) May 12, 2018
Twitter is awesome! In what other way could I have possibly made a connection like that? I need to get Kelly’s contact info from Meg — assuming he even remembers me after more than three decades — so we can get a beer together next time I’m at the beach…
That’s “Mr. Ed” Jones on the right, and Kelly Sharbel in the middle. I’m probably somewhere nearby….
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OK, y’all, it turns out that this set of coincidences was more amazing (to me, anyway) than I thought when I wrote this.
It also turns out that I am thick as a brick.
I knew Meg was from West Tennessee, and Kelly Sharbel knows a lot of people in West Tennessee going way back, so when she wrote, “Kelly is a dear friend who’s helping us with our research on Grandaddy’s biography,” I just thought, well, that makes sense, but assumed her granddaddy was somebody I don’t know.
But her granddaddy was Ed Jones, the congressman!
Meg had a good laugh when she realized I hadn’t picked up on that.
Anyway, again I’ll say, Twitter can help you make some wonderful connections — if you’re not as obtuse as I am…
And it was RIGHT THERE on the Wikipedia page I had linked y’all to:
On Sunday, we had the gathering at our house for Mother’s Day. When my eldest daughter arrived, I asked her, “You know Meg Kinnard, don’t you?” And she said yes.
So I began, “Well, you probably don’t remember that when we lived in Jackson, we were represented in Congress by a guy named Ed Jones…”
And she immediately said, “Yes, Meg’s grandfather.”
So the whole planet knew, except me…
John Spratt was a very good representative for South Carolina in the House. An honorable man who had to tread the treacherous waters of political sharks very carefully. His replacement is not close to Spratt when it comes to understanding the political temperature of the state, nation, or the world.
South Carolina lost a valuable resource and a person of reason when Spratt was defeated during the apex of the Tea Party movement no matter which party he belonged to.