What is it about a person that makes him/her popular?  Is it money?  No, that comes and goes.  Is is talent?  Well, that may be a part of it.  But, in the Mid-South alone, there are a lot of extremely talented unknowns.  Last night, as I was tossing and turning, I asked myself, what was it about Elvis Presley, John “Bad Dog McCormack”, and Larry Finch that made them so beloved by their hometown of Memphis, Tennessee and beyond?

As always, now that I’m older and, hopefully wiser, I returned to the place where I know that I can find the answer:

1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Have you ever been around someone who lights up a room the moment they enter?  My Daddy (Southern colloquialism for male parental unit) was like that.  So were these extraordinary men.

I had the privilege of attending one of Elvis’ Concerts , seated in the top row of the Mid-South Coliseum with my late step-sister in the early 70s.  Elvis was wearing one of his blue jumpsuits.  Even from the 35th row, I was touched by the genuine love that he had for his fans and the ease by which he communicated with them.  At one point in the concert, Elvis said:

Since I’m home, and y’all are all home folk, I’m gonna try a new song out on ya.

He proceeded to grab some sheet music and sang from it, without missing a beat.  Here’s an example of Elvis’ talent:

I had the privilege of talking to Bad Dog McCormack in the late 80s, while I was working at Memphis Cablevision.  He, Tim Spencer, and Bev Hart were there, taping commercials for a promotion that their radio station, Rock 103, was running with Coca-Cola.  The spots were called Coke Breaks.  He was such a naturally nice guy.  After that, I listened to the Wake-up Crew every morning, until Clear Channel broke them up when they bought the station.  After that, I listed to Bad Dog until he passed away from leukemia last month.  Here is a message that he recorded right before he worked his last Ronald McDonald House Radiothon for the kids of St. Jude Hospital.  He found out that he was out of remission, right before the Radiothon, but he refused to miss it, telling everyone that he had to do it for the kids.

And, of course, there was Larry Finch, who bridged a racially divided city like no one else has since.  Here are highlights from the Tiger’s 1973 loss in the NCAA Basketball Championship to UCLA.

Memphis was once known as The City of Good Abode.  It can be again. However, it will take singular men like these.  And love.