One of the biggest perks of working for The Clarion-Ledger as a reporter/feature writer back in the day, were the endless opportunities to meet and interview leading personalities of our time.

  Although writing stories about politicians, writers, business entrepreneurs and everyday heroes were eye opening and interesting when it came to entertainers, especially country music stars, I was in my element!

   For the most part, most of them were as awe struck at being called a Star as I was sitting next to them in their dressing rooms asking questions about their life and music.

   Such was the case with Mississippi's native son Superstar Charley Pride.

   In Jackson in 1974 headlining the Mississippi Arts Festival at the Coliseum, Charley received countless standing ovations and brought the house down with his final number “Cotton Fields”.

   Already a mega superstar with such hits as “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’’”, “Mountain of Love”, “Kaw-Liga” and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone”. Charley was on his way to becoming RCA Records’ top-selling country artist and country music’s first Black Superstar.

   That afternoon, before his sold-out performance, Charley Pride and I sat down in his suite at the Coliseum Ramada Inn to talk about his days as a Mississippi farmhand – those childhood years he spent picking cotton alongside his parents and 10 brothers and sisters on a farm in Sledge.

   Using his earnings from picking cotton Charley said he bought his first guitar, a $10 Sears Roebuck model when he was 14.

  He told me he had dreams of becoming the “greatest baseball player whoever put on a uniform” and wanted to follow in the footsteps of his favorite baseball player Jackie Robinson.

   However, it was during a nightclub act in 1963 that country stars Red Sovine and Red Foley happened to stumble in on one of Charley’s acts and suggested he give up his dreams of baseball and seriously consider making music his career.

   Charley Pride is an inspiration to generations of performers, a model of quiet dignity and artful fortitude.

   Reading over my long-ago story about Charley Pride, I ended it this way: “Charley Pride has come a long way from the Delta cotton fields where he was born and reared. There’s one thing for sure now: he’ll never have to go back.”

   And, he never did.

   Rest in Peace Charley Pride. You did Mississippi and our world proud!