Conversations; 113; Pat Fordice with Larry Miller

Oh. The room. Oh. Oh oh oh. Oh oh oh oh. Oh and welcome to conversations I'm Larry Miller and we're delighted this week to welcome to Mississippi TV that fortifies the first lady of the state of Mississippi Mrs. Fordyce so nice to have you with us. Thank you. And we were chatting before we went on the air you've had the opportunity to come out before and deity TV and talk about lots of different things that you've been involved in in the first lady and we want to talk about some of those tonight. But first of all let me just say a very genuine thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. As we have been prone to do on this program with other guests we like to talk a little bit about your

background and find out a little bit more about Pat Fordyce the person as well as the first lady. Talk about your early years because you are a native Mississippi that's born in Jackson. Tell us a little bit about your growing up in Jackson and what schools you went to when it started out in West Jackson and I went to which failed which is which is now pecan park and I understand they changed the name partially because the children took such teasing. Because it was called what Theo. We then moved away for a very short time in my back and I lived over a Madison story. Went to Davis Elementary School to the same Miss Eudora Welty. I took piano from this is males as a lot of people in Jackson did in the stand Richard Ford likes to tell people that he and I took piano lessons from the same teacher although certainly not at the same time I mean it was way after our US we

moved to make a case when I was in the eighth grade my dad was with lanolin Monsanto bought land all and he was transferred to me things you know I had been told earlier incorrectly that you've gone to Central High School. You did have a brother who ensured you have other brothers and you know just the one brother and at that time everyone went to Central High School you met up at Central High School because it was the only one and I would have had we stayed here. Of course my brother was the same year we moved but he still had to come back and write this cause and they're celebrating their 50th. Screw reunion this summer well it should be an experience of going back to Central High School which has now been renovated and I understand the State Department of Education occupies the room. I hope he's going to be able to come back. My brother is Jimmy Owens and he's become quite well-known in the Christian music world. He came back for both of the inaugurations and spoke at the prayer

service that we had on the morning of you know our goal ceremonies. Well he must have been taking music lessons at the same time you were. Answer was. Well as you had a chance to move around move from Jackson I think you said your father was transferred up to Memphis with with the oil company and so you that's where you finished school high school up there and then. Attended college in the journey for a while Sherman in this very small now two year college Christian college in Missouri and it's still there but it's now a Columbia community college. The team if they stay in then I married the governor in his junior year in college at Purdue we've been going to have a since 11. I hope to tell me a little bit about when you were in school and you say you attended a Christian college and Zuri what what what were you studying did you have an idea of what you wanted to do with your life at that time.

No not really that early. I always thought I wanted to be in the medical field in some way that course I never was I ended up being a stay at home mom working at home raising four children. But I actually didn't have a career until five years ago when I became very isolated. Well interestingly enough though your your life or your activities or touched the medical profession in some rather interesting ways that we might talk about here too. But I'm interested to know how did you meet Kirk Fordham. A very good friend of our families had been transferred to Memphis like two years before we moved here. In this they had a boy my age and he became good friends with her. So when we moved up there we immediately looked them up and he introduced me to her and the rest is history. And you were already 30 years you're married in 1955 and you found four children. Can you tell us a little about that.

Well we have one daughter. She lives in Vicksburg and she's married and has three daughters one of which will graduate from high school to this year from the Mississippi school for math and science. It's in her next story is going there next year. Then we have three sons their oldest son. Well all of us sons two of the sons run the construction company Fordyce construction company. And I doubt as has been his merge his construction company in with forward eyes so they now work together. Youngest son is a physician in Houston Texas he's just finishing up a year's fellowship at M.D. Anderson. After being down there from medical school and seven years of trying and he and his wife are both physicians and they're moving to Nashville this summer. So even though they'll only be event 60 miles closer. I feel like I feels a lot closer trust many Ustad. Well we sort of bounced over asking a couple of questions that I usually like to ask folks on this program and that is as you were growing up and going to school.

Who are some of your heroes people that you would have admired and perhaps were wanting to emulate. Well I was always very close to my grandmother who was just a wonderful Christian woman. And she had a big influence on my life as well as my mother. I didn't have any sisters. I had one very dear friend here in Jackson that. I always thought was just the most wonderful person in the world and now it's going to be more like her. And I guess that had a big influence on me growing up as well. Now you've already told us that you took piano lessons and any other hobbies or activities that you were involved with as a youngster. Well Girl Scouts missing girl scouts and ended up president of the Jackson Council of Girl Scouts. Before we move to mean things. I made my life Girl Scout I've been made bad about the Girl Scouts and honorary president of the pan back out of district girl skins

Scouting's a wonderful wonderful and it certainly has done some wonderful things and I just dance where else can a good friend in Oklahoma who thought he never wanted to be involved with the scouts and took on the job as a leader. And that was some 20 years ago and he's still doing that. But it takes a lot of dedication and it's wonderful that we have people who will take that time because they can be such an influence on you know young people growing up. I ask you before we came or about your activities and and how your life has changed as first lady and how much of your time it takes and I think what I what I heard is it's almost a full immersion. It is it is it's been quite a change. I like to say that my idea of public speaking was chastising my children in the grocery store. But I jumped right into it in the campaign and found that I really enjoyed it in there I do an awful lot of that. But I do. Look upon this as I wonder of opportunity to really try to make a difference and I think what you do is far

slighty in any state is just up to you how much you want to get involved and know nationwide there are some personalities who really don't do much as first lady they have outside careers which they didn't want to give up. Other sort of balance it in don't do that much. And I'm not sure I said apt to make it a photogram job but it's ended up that why so many people ask you to be involved in a bit and in programs that are just too good to paint such as you know you can make a difference where you've been involved in a wide variety of things in the arts humanities working with children health issues I know it's a dangerous question Do you have any favorite activities in which you you jump in eagerly enthusiastically. Well I have several that are disparate rewarding. One is I'm honorary chairman of the friends of the children's hospital and to work with the patients out there who are desperately ill.

It's really made an impact. Also I've worked with Special Olympics and with very special arts. And I've enjoyed my work with all of those. I'm currently involved of course beyond the palaces the splendors in child abuse prevention and in teenage pregnancy prevention which are certainly two very very important things here in Mississippi as I heard this morning on TV that we are sort of on the bottom of the list when it comes to that but we're working as hard as we can to improve conditions and to make it better. Child abuse is one of those just horrible things we all hate to hear about it. Now I know some of the statistics I've seen nationwide and in Mississippi there are statistics I guess most of us just really don't want to talk about but I mean it registers into the hundreds of thousands

and even here in Mississippi We've had deaths as a result of a lot of there were over 17000 reports of Chanda BS to DHS in the civilized year. And there's so many forms of child abuse neglect is one that I think we tend to overlook is categorizing that as chalybeate use but it certainly is. Do you think it's worse now than it was a generation ago or two generations ago. Probably because we don't have the communication within neighborhoods that we did or we had don't have family we don't have extended families living together as we did in. It was they are certainly but we didn't know about it. We talk about it and we didn't have television to know about it this much as we did a man so I'm sure it was they are but I feel like it's probably worse because of our faster paced

lives where parents work all day and they come home and and their tempers are short because they're tired. I've always had my mother working mothers because how in the world you can do all of that and then come home and do everything you have today that has to be done with the family has always added my people who can balance that working mothers really used to be the exception and not certainly and more than anything. You know we deal with with the issue what are some of the ways that we attack you. Well last month was to be so Awareness Month and we ask everyone to wear blue ribbons. This was started by a grandmother in. Virginia. In honor. Of her grandson who was murdered and she pinned the ribbons to her safe and her car and then she just started this nationwide

campaign and I think that's very important because I think the more we talk about something a lot of this was probably pushed under the rug is just a something you didn't talk about it so long as we bring it recognition in. Perhaps it will help it to go away. One of the first activities that I think you probably became associated with that has really had a high visibility impact in the world of marches and performances the international ballet competition. Can you talk a little bit about what that has meant to Mississippi in general and perhaps to you personally. Well to Mississippi it is given us it has put us on the map with the dance world right up at the top and I'm told by the day it's hers who come here that they say this is the best one around the world. You know it's here only every four years. And. And to stand that they don't want it to go anywhere else or of the cities trying to get it New

York for one would love to have it and not have it in Jackson but. But that answer is tell them and tell us. You know this is where we traded the best swear we have the best. This is the most professional of all of the competitions and it's a tribute to the staff that just work so hard. I'm on the board as a working member I'm on a lot of Monterey boards but I've been a working member of the board of the AB AC and I've seen what the staff can do and what the dedicated volunteers do and it's very exciting that it's coming hour a day. Of the awards gala and the opening night have been sold out. But the there there still take it's available for the encore competition and for round one in round two and I understand too that if you go to the box office on the day of a performance very often you can get a ticket in good ticket because we request that people who are not going to use a ticket to please turn them back in and then they

can be resold. So don't give up hope. If you want to go to Sky buy the ticket office late in the afternoon. One of the most exciting things which happened here in Mississippi in recent years the wonderful exhibit that we brought here of the palace of St. Petersburg. Let's talk a little bit about how that came to be because you had a role in helping all of that unfold. How did that happen. Well I met a group of young Russians who were in the United States trying to raise some pharmaceutical supplies to give to the government of St. Petersburg and in return they would get the deed to a church to a building that they could use as a church and I met with them and then they laughed and I just kept thinking about it but I didn't really do anything about it until that fall and called a pharmacist friend of mine Stevens and ask if he had some way to help me get some pharmaceutical supplies and I really was thinking of a box. The pharmaceutical survives but doesn't do anything halfway in.

We formed the commission for cultural and international exchange where first we formed Mississippians reaching out and involve the medical community and the pharmaceutical community and some businesspeople and ministers and everyone began working on this mercy project to sin pharmaceutical supply was above and beyond what these Russian people need for their church and but just kept own anon and we've sent over 25 million dollars worth of pharmaceutical supplies to St. Petersburg including a Kant scanner that buck just scowled up and said How would you like to give a can't scan or in the name of Mississippi to St. Petersburg and the the man with G.E. said well sorry I don't think so. He said we're not talking about a box of bandaids here we're talking about a million dollar machine the doc said I know. Don't you sometimes you don't. Don't pick them up at the corner guy. But this

official decided well why not. You know we can do that but what we've tried to stress we sit down again over to meet with the government officials to make sure that all of this of this equipment and the supplies got in the right hands and not on the black market that was very important. The other thing has been that we wanted to help the people of St. Petersburg for no other reason than we understood how desperately in need they were pharmaceutical supplies but we had to let the people of Mississippi know and I think this is very important that these were not things that we could have gotten in our state. They were all earmarked about the Jap pharmaceutical companies to go to foreign countries. We just facilitated that and they allowed them to be given in the name of Mississippi you know. Marvelous response and meeting the pharmaceutical and medical needs and represented really giving short of environment Mississippi that

not all of us are really aware of that we have a pig's lawyer and Mississippians are the best people in the world and the governor and I are convinced of that and the longer we're here and the more we travel and the more we make them we know that that's true. Just recently there was an article in The Boston Globe that said that Mississippi was fourth in the nation in charitable giving. And they quoted that with conservative Billy and with distrust of big government. But they said that Mississippi gives more per person charitably then Rhode Island the New Hampshire combined. And then author ended the article back saying if I were homeless and sick. And hurt. I would rather live in Mississippi than Massachusetts. We're tapped out with some wonderful tribute. Well clearly some of the toughest people to convince of the greatness of Mississippi in the positive attitude and the positive things are Mississippi since he's been governor and

I adopted the slogan only positive Mississippi spoken here in his first campaign and it's now in the bottom of the welcome signs into the state and we truly believe that that you know you are what you think and what you feel about your staff and if you look positively and things and speak positively then things are going to get better. And obviously they have over the past five and a half years from speaking only positive Mississippi. What about though and I've heard some folks critical of that and think well that's what washing the problems here. Got lots of things so obviously we don't have our heads in the sand and thank you everything's fine we know it's not but we're working every day to make Mississippi better. And so why have this inferiority complex that we have and I think it's been drummed into us for years and years and years and if you look at all of the. All the awards we want

all the lists that we are near the top own and don't dwell so much on where we are still at the bottom although we're working very hard to get ahead. I think we all feel better about our sabzi when you feel better about your SAT. You are a better person all the palaces of St. Petersburg. I think help Mississippians feel a certain pride. First of all the Mississippi could attract an exhibit of that kind of quality to the statement brought him brought in a lot of tourists a lot of dollars and maybe in the deal helped to raise a little steam. It's not like it's a prize to solve that we could do that. But they kept saying to us what can we do for you which was certainly not why we started this humanitarian project but Art came to mind because we had seen such beautiful art in in the palaces of St. Petersburg and. The good news was that Buck Stevenson ajak executive director the now executive director who was in Memphis with the Wonder series not only is Jack a wonderful executive

director for the Czar to save it he's from Mississippi. Mynor City Mississippi he went today after a state university. So we brought a hometown boy home and given him free reign to do these exhibits and it's just been remarkable you know that the palaces of St. Petersburg was the largest attended art of it in the United States. So your comments about Jack collar I'm reminded of someone telling me that you can't sit with Jacko he will not allow you to not get excited about the project. That's how much he is involved. He used to come in Tammy history was for the palaces and he would leave and I would think. Don't see how we can do it and then he talks about his dreams for new projects and I just agree and know that it can happen with someone like Jack and it. Well fast on the heels of St. Petersburg blunders overside How is that going. What is it for folks who may not know all the splendors of our son. I was named the number one tourist attraction in the United States by the American vest

Association which obviously has helped with their attendance because you see buses there all day long. The palaces of St.. The splendors of first sign is an exhibition the largest ever hailed. The chateau ever since that side of Paris. We have over a hundred and forty objects we have some objects from major museums around the United States which were at one time in the palace. So far over 90000 people have been through which is considerably more than had been through the palaces of St. Petersburg at this time and although it's a much shorter. We hope to equal our surprise the attendance. So what's going to be next I mean including what's on the drawing Well I heard on television I haven't talked to him but I heard on television just yesterday that Mr. cow is going to Europe the end of this month to meet with people to see what we might do as a millennium

exhibitions I'm sure there be something travel. I suppose that's one of the things that you spend a good deal of your time doing as first lady. What's a typical week like for you. We're out last week I was in a different city every day. That's not particularly typical although yesterday I was in Philadelphia and Tamar headed to Bergen Friday the Gulf Coast so it's beginning to sound kind of typical but. If this is a big step and there are so many things that you could do if there was just enough time to do it right it just hurts me to turn down a lot of the invitations we have to turn to and what I do go as much as I can and much as I possibly can to take part in these many projects around the state. Second what do you like best about being first lady. Well just meeting the people has been the most wonderful aspect of it I think. Even though I was born here I've never traveled around the state until the first campaign and we just about shook the hand of every person in the state

during that campaign. What do you like least about it. Probably the absolute lack of privacy and the fact that I don't spend as much time with my mother and my grandchildren as I'd like to as part of that comes with the territory of being in politics you live in a glass house you get lots of stones thrown at you. The governor probably more of the governor than you. How do you process that how do you handle that personally for you. Well it took a while. And I guess you never get completely over cruel things that are said but I realize it's part of the process. Part of being in politics is you said you do live and play assassin. You just have to take it with a grain of salt. You have to realize that what is said in the paper is a lot of times one person's opinion and it's not what everyone across the state thinks or you would really get to protest. One of the things we hear from time to time

it for us for governor is that likely to happen and I don't know where that came from except that I requested to speak at the knish up a canny fair last year to talk about my project companies coming the splendors of Mississippi and I think a lot of people read a lot into that. I didn't realize I was a first first lady to ever just speak at the fair. I might have read about that but I just thought well what a good way to get the new you sad about this project. So I hear that. I hear that a lot in fact I'm surprised at how much I hear that. I'm flattered that anybody would think I could do it. I had no idea that I would do it even think about even considering it. But I'm not totally closed because it's just I think most important that someone is elected in this next election who will carry on the Mississippi miracle that's been going on for five years and I hears

them I'm just hoping that someone is going to step up and say our on and we'll be able to win it we'll be able to do that. Let me ask you in the closing few seconds we have what kinds of personal or initiatives you have in mind as first lady here in the in the coming months you were involved in so many different things. I don't have anything new coming up right now because we have so many things that are going on that we need to close and complete. Probably not until the splendors of us leaves when I get started on something new. But this one is a Mississippi has been a project that has we've gotten a lot of response and the think that there has been companies coming because we need to clean the state up for all of these visitors. Well we very much appreciate your taking time out of your schedule to come in and visit with us your own conversation. It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much Mrs. Fordyce for Dutch the first

lady of Mississippi Our guest this week on conversations. And thank you for being with us. But. Oh oh oh oh oh.