Kay Forrest – The Corsair
Rheta Grimsley Johnson has a simple piece of advice to offer aspiring journalists. “Learn to write a short declarative sentence, learn the basics, and all the rest is just gravy,” she said. “You cannot name a great American writer who was not first a newspaper person, with the exception of Faulkner… But he never learned to write the short, declarative sentence,” she added with a laugh.
Johnson is a writer, a “newspaper person” and a true southern girl. She has spent her life residing all over the deep-south: she was born in Colquitt, Ga., grew up mostly in Montgomery, Ala., and currently lives on 100 acres “out in the boonies” in Iuka, Miss. with her three dogs. As a small child, she even spent five years in Pensacola; she has fond memories of this “magical place” and the pink, concrete home her family lived in.
On April 14, Johnson will come back to Pensacola once again as part of the tour for her latest book, “Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming: A Memoir.” Pensacola is just one of the many southern stops on her anticipated yearlong tour.
“It’s an uneven book, but that’s because life is uneven,” she said. She began the memoir in January 2009 as a light, comedic look at pivotal Christmases throughout her life, because as she said, “A lot of things happen to me around Christmas.” However, her writing came to a standstill when her husband suddenly passed away from heart complications that March. She finally went on to continue the book, but with a sometimes darker, more emotional tone. Her writing was a form of therapy to her. “Work always saves me; writing always helps me,” she said.
Though Johnson is an accomplished book author, with “Enchanted Evening Barbie” being her fourth published book, she is above all a newspaper journalist. She began her journalism career in the 8th grade, writing for her school newspaper in 1960s Alabama. She then went on to obtain a journalism degree from Auburn University in 1977. She has worked as a reporter for many different newspapers over the years, including 14 years at the “Memphis Commercial Appeal” in Tennessee. A compendium of her columns from this publication make up her first published book, “American Faces.”
Johnson has won several awards for her writing, including the National Pacemaker Award in college, and the Headliner Award for commentary two years in a row. She was even inducted into the Scripps Howard Newspaper’s Editorial hall of fame in 1985, and was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1991.
“I wouldn’t trade my profession for anything,” Johnson said. Her favorite thing about her work has been writing about normal, everyday people. “I find it fascinating that everyone has a story. But, they’re usually not ‘splashy’ enough for most people to want to write about,” she said. “I devote my time to ordinary people.”
However, she does admit that one highlight of her career was writing the biography of one “ordinary person” who happened to be famous: Charles Schulz, the creator of the hugely famous comic strip, “Peanuts.” For “Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz” she spent time on and off with Schulz in Santa Rosa, Calif., interviewing him and getting to know the “kind, gracious man” that he was. She said that each character in “Peanuts” represents an aspect of Schulz, but as a whole he truly was Charlie Brown.
Apart from taking time to write her books, Johnson is still a newspaper journalist through and through. She currently works for King Features Syndicate of New York, with her column running in about 50 different newspapers throughout the country. Though she has had bumps in the road, Johnson has always kept writing. Once, when she felt discouraged over a particular article, her friend encouraged her to “just make sure to make it beautiful.” And, with that she heartily agrees, “That’s what our goal [as writers] should be: to make it beautiful.”