Starkville belonged to the late Johnny Cash last weekend when the city staged the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival for the purpose of granting a pardon to the Man in Black who was arrested for picking flowers late in the night while intoxicated following a show in 1965. The event inspired Cash's song "Starkville City Jail," as well as this three-day event some 40 years later. Philadelphia's Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives headlined the Saturday evening show following the pardon. According to my reporters, Butch, Kim and Jane Hodgins and Mike and Mike Evans, "Marty was fantastic, his band unbelievable and the crowd loved him."

By Rachel Evans