By most accounts, I have had a very successful career. I have been blessed with the opportunity to not only serve as a police officer, but also to lead our country’s largest police department. Beyond that, I remain the only law enforcement person to have ever served in the cabinet of the president. In addition, I have had a very rewarding career in academia as a professor, lecturer and department head. All of my accomplishments were surpassed when I was given the opportunity to serve as mayor of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States.
With over five decades of service to his country, Hal is certainly not a man to be easily detoured or dissuaded from his mission. This book is a real testament of how long-suffering, perseverance, loyalty, integrity, and patriotism. Hal's wit and humor which he never outgrew even until today, allowed him to associate with highly recognized and well-established people. His life really began after he was kicked out by his father. He had a bitter childhood that continued well into his teens, but everything changed after he became a member of the United States Marine Corps. His success was not given to him on a silver platter, it was definitely a roller-coaster adventure. He lived, he laughed, he cried, he loved, he fell, and he rose yet again. From an Outhouse to the White House, and Then Some, will show you just how he did it. Hal Davis is a distinguished US Marine (Ret.) with a career that spanned twenty-two years. In his heart, service is for a lifetime. He grew up in Morehead, Kentucky, and life back then was never easy. Deprived of all the good things that a childhood normally brings, he remained steadfast in reaching his goals. He became a Tennessee State Trooper, FBI Special Investigator, United States Secret Service Agent to two US presidents, and a Marine and Naval Criminal Investigator. He had a fulfilling forty-two-year career, but more than that, Hal is a loving husband to Susan and a father-hero figure to Allison, who's now their guardian angel in heaven.
A naive girl from the backwoods of Tennessee, finds her way to the big city of Las Vegas surrounded by corrupt politicians, celebrities & mobsters, with just her strength of character to guide her through historical moments in American Pop Culture. From the Outhouse to the White House is the hilarious, jaw dropping, and occasionally moving memoir of Franny "Black Cat" Marcum, the unworldly daughter of a Tennessee moonshiner who landed in Las Vegas during the 1970's boom period. Franny's gritty charisma and striking good looks, combined with her uncanny knack for keeping her mouth shut, quickly made her an invaluable resource in the crazy world of Sin City. This spitfire's take-no-prisoners attitude landed her in unfathomable situations as she made discreet PR arrangements for gangsters, celebrities and politicians alike. Notables such as John Gotti, Willie Nelson, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, and many more all contribute to the hard-to-believe, page-turning adventures.
In his autobiography, Jimmy Mosley portrays what life was like for a young black man living on a plantation in southern Mississippi. During his lifetime, he was also exposed to the racist practices within the infamous ceremonial unit serving at the White House. Even in extremely different circumstances. Jimmy found that life is not about what you are given, but about self-motivation, determination to win and succeed, and willingness to make a change. It is possible for people to overcome barriers, even in a country where fathers often abandon their children, where people ignore the wisdom of the past, and where people have turned away from the teaching of God. In his life, Jimmy Mosley has seen numerous examples of God freely giving grace to the needy. As a teacher, Jimmy Mosley has found that his students have always enjoyed listening to his stories about his past. By remembering the past and being committed to being the best we can be, we will realize how blessed we truly are.
This is the poignant and triumphant story of Terrence K. Williams, who was born into nothing; neglected, starved, abused, and beaten, a product of the foster home system. He grew up without a table to sit at, let alone food to eat, yet today is endeared by millions of fans and followers...and welcomed at the White House! A heart-wrenching yet ultimately victorious story, you'll cry and laugh as you experience his life through Terrence's eyes. With the odds stacked against him, Terrence believed that a hard life is still a valuable life. He let his deprived upbringing shape him, not destroy him. Surrounded by a victimhood mentality, he pushed himself to reject the acceptance that his life would never be better. Today he's a popular voice for common-sense and a defender of freedom. This is the story of being let down by a system but not letting yourself down. If you're facing challenges and obstacles that seem insurmountable, Terrence's story will inspire and motivate you to find opportunities to grow in whatever situation you face. You'll discover how you can join Terrence as a part of the American Dream!
Perhaps not southerners in the usual sense, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson each demonstrated a political style and philosophy that helped them influence the South and unite the country in ways that few other presidents have. Combining vivid biography and political insight, William E. Leuchtenburg offers an engaging account of relations between these three presidents and the South while also tracing how the region came to embrace a national perspective without losing its distinctive sense of place. According to Leuchtenburg, each man "had one foot below the Mason-Dixon Line, one foot above." Roosevelt, a New Yorker, spent much of the last twenty-five years of his life in Warm Springs, Georgia, where he built a "Little White House." Truman, a Missourian, grew up in a pro-Confederate town but one that also looked West because of its history as the entrepôt for the Oregon Trail. Johnson, who hailed from the former Confederate state of Texas, was a westerner as much as a southerner. Their intimate associations with the South gave these three presidents an empathy toward and acceptance in the region. In urging southerners to jettison outworn folkways, Roosevelt could speak as a neighbor and adopted son, Truman as a borderstater who had been taught to revere the Lost Cause, and Johnson as a native who had been scorned by Yankees. Leuchtenburg explores in fascinating detail how their unique attachment to "place" helped them to adopt shifting identities, which proved useful in healing rifts between North and South, in altering behavior in regard to race, and in fostering southern economic growth. The White House Looks South is the monumental work of a master historian. At a time when race, class, and gender dominate historical writing, Leuchtenburg argues that place is no less significant. In a period when America is said to be homogenized, he shows that sectional distinctions persist. And in an era when political history is devalued, he demonstrates that government can profoundly affect people's lives and that presidents can be change-makers.
We All Wrote on the Same Outhouse Walls is a warm-hearted very humorous book about the many joys and few sorrows of growing up during the 40s and 50s in a small town exiled in the Appalachian foothills. The book is about the author's small hometown which The Wall Street Journal described as "Intact but decaying: pure 19th Century." The Journal suggested that the town could be "On the scale of Williamsburg," but the town folks "Don't want to be preserved, saved or otherwise bothered by outsiders, no matter how good their intentions." This priceless narrative tells about first grade in a one-room schoolhouse called Possum Hollow, a splendid misspent youth, and a homespun education which was acquired while working in a country story and hanging out in a poolroom. The hilarious description of an endangered time and place is about colorful and unforgettable characters. It tells memorable stories and folklore which began with "I mind the time," and ended somewhat in borderline disbelief, but always in laughter. It's about nicknames, front porches, and coon dog field trials after church. And it's' about the down-home wit, sayings and opinions that made the personalities and their town so engaging. The book also tells what the old timers, the orthopedic set, would tell you, whether asked or not, about the 60s movement, the break-up of the traditional family, the present day media, and the theory of victimization. Their opinions, today, would be unfashionable to some, but refreshingly politically inappropriate to others. Not that the author's small hometown was perfect or blameless. The good old fashioned behavior by some of getting drunk on Saturday night and going to church on Sunday was alive and well. The town has its assortment of saints and sinners. But when it came to values and time-honored beliefs which now seem out-dated, back then small towns had them. maybe that's what one of John Steinbeck's characters in Mice and Men pointed out when the character commented, "There's nothing wrong anymore." We All Wrote on the Same Outhouse Walls is a must read for all of you who will enjoy a nostalgic visit back to your youth or your small hometown. It will bring back happy memories of a better time and make you glad that you were there. The book is also a must read for young readers who wonder what it was really like, and if they really were "the good old days." Most of all the book is for those of you who just want a good laugh.
Mike Royko: The Chicago Tribune Collection 1984–1997 is an expansive new volume of the longtime Chicago news legend’s work. Encompassing thousands of his columns, all of which originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune, this is the first collection of Royko work to solely cover his time at the Tribune. Covering politics, culture, sports, and more, Royko brings his trademark sarcasm and cantankerous wit to a complete compendium of his last 14 years as a newspaper man. Organized chronologically, these columns display Royko's talent for crafting fictional conversations that reveal the truth of the small-minded in our society. From cagey political points to hysterical take-downs of "meatball" sports fans, Royko's writing was beloved and anticipated anxiously by his fans. In plain language, he "tells it like it is" on subjects relevant to modern society. In addition to his columns, the book features Royko's obituary and articles written about him after his death, telling the tale of his life and success. This ultimate collection is a must-read for Royko fans, longtime Chicago Tribune readers, and Chicagoans who love the city's rich history of dedicated and insightful journalism.
The National Book Award–winning author of Legacy of Ashes delivers “a devastating account of Nixon’s presidency . . . powerful [and] extraordinary” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Drawing on newly declassified documents, One Man Against the World paints a devastating portrait of a tortured yet brilliant man who led the country largely according to a deep-seated insecurity and distrust of not only his cabinet and congress, but the American population at large. In riveting prose, Tim Weiner illuminates how the Vietnam War and the Watergate controversy that brought about Nixon’s demise were inextricably linked. From the hail of garbage and curses that awaited Nixon upon his arrival at the White House, to the unprecedented action Nixon took against American citizens, to the infamous break-in and the tapes that bear remarkable record of the most intimate and damning conversations between the president and his confidantes, Weiner narrates the history of Nixon’s anguished presidency in fascinating and fresh detail. A crucial new look at the greatest political suicide in history, One Man Against the World leaves us not only with new insight into this tumultuous period, but also into the motivations and demons of an American president who saw enemies everywhere, and, thinking the world was against him, undermined the foundations of the country he had hoped to lead.
