John Shearer: Diane Siskin Recalls Pursuing Jimmy Carter Stories In Plains With Curtis Adams

The late Chattanooga News-Free Press publisher Roy McDonald and his editorial page might have preached staunch Republican conservatism, but he was above all else a savvy businessman and competitor.

And in early 1977, he saw a chance to sell some papers – and get an edge on the rival Chattanooga Times in readership – by giving plenty of attention to, yes, a Democrat. Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, who had been a virtual unknown on the national stage a year earlier, had somewhat surprisingly been elected president in 1976 in the wake of the Republican Watergate break-in scandal that was still lingering in the minds of voters.

And News-Free Press Lifestyle feature writer Diane Siskin found herself receiving her own related surprise when she was called into the office of Roy McDonald in January 1977 with the inauguration a few days away. “He asked me to do an assignment. He said, ‘I’m going to send you down to Plains to put together as many interviews and pictures as possible,’ ” she recalled.

To help her on her trip to President-Elect Carter’s hometown in Georgia in this era when women news reporters were still very much in the minority, even though the Free Press long had women society writers, Mr. Roy was going to have Curtis Adams escort her.

A naturally outgoing and colorful person who had worked with Mr. Roy as circulation manager to help boost circulation before becoming a county commissioner initially as a Democrat and later as a Republican, he was going to drive. He was also going to lead interference for her in helping locate family members and close acquaintances of Mr. Carter.

And going along with the two would be then-News-Free Press photographer Michael Crawford to take some pictures.

Memories of the trip of more than 45 years ago recently came back into better focus for Ms. Siskin, who now lives in the Florida panhandle. That was not only because Mr. Carter has been in the news as he is now on hospice care, but also because Earl Freudenberg recently wrote a story about Mr. Adams for chattanoogan.com.

Ms. Siskin had come to work for the News-Free Press in 1971 and saw plenty of history being made just with the newspaper itself. Mr. McDonald, or Mr. Roy as everyone knew him, was in an exciting decade as publisher of the News-Free Press, despite being over typical retirement age. He had broken free of union workers handling the typesetting part of the operation, although the union members and union supporters were not happy.

He was also enjoying a good circulation growth after breaking free from a publishing agreement with the Chattanooga Times in the 1960s and was offering in the 1970s an expansive paper with lots of photos and stories to increase readership and circulation. In this realm, he also began selling special souvenir editions, with the multi-part Elvis editions later in 1977 after Elvis Presley’s sudden death perhaps the most memorable.

And Curtis Adams had helped come up with many of these ideas.

The News-Free Press (which it was called before becoming just the Chattanooga Free Press in 1993) did run a special section related to the inauguration with wire and local copy from the paper’s newsroom staff. But the stories by Ms. Siskin were more supplemental and sprinkled out over the paper right before and at the time of the inauguration.

But getting the stories to print was the real story for her. January 1977 had seen multiple snowstorms and days of bitterly cold weather locally, including on Inauguration Day and when she was earlier just trying to get down to Plains in South Georgia.

As Ms. Siskin recalled over the phone, the experiences created some exciting few days. It began when her husband, Charles – an occasional contributor to chattanoogan.com these days known for his humorous touch – did not initially believe she was going on such a newspaper reporter’s safari. He especially did not on the morning she was to leave due to some snow and wintry weather.

“Charles said for me not to go, and then Curtis Adams pulls up in a big black limousine,” she recalled, saying it looked more like a car used by families on the way to a funeral burial. “And he (Charles) said, ‘You’re going in that?’ ”

Sure enough, she was, and she hopped in the car, and the three headed in a southerly direction down to Plains on the wintry day!

The outlook for getting much coverage was also bleak in the eyes of Ms. Siskin, at least initially, with many people in town and media members clamoring for stories related to the new president.

“We got down there,” she said. “I didn’t know where to begin or what to do. We just kept moving on, but we couldn’t get a place to stay.”

However, much like Jimmy Carter’s sudden rise to the presidency a few months earlier, the situation for them started improving greatly. They soon met all kinds of noted fellow journalists and people closely connected to Mr. Carter, although they did not meet the president himself, since he was busily getting ready to take office.

Ms. Siskin believes the key might have been Mr. Adams’ reporter-like instincts – even though he was not a reporter – in getting to meet Billy Carter, the president’s also-famous brother, at his gas station.

“Curtis says to go to the back of the station and talk to the good old boys, and he said to me, ‘I’m going to hand you a can of Billy Beer (that the president’s brother was selling while capitalizing on his famous sibling), and pretend you are taking a sip,’ ” said Ms. Siskin, who was not a drinker.

“And sure enough, it works, and Billy starts talking to me.”

Perhaps thinking it was a little unusual for her to be standing there and talking to some good old boys at a small-town gas station, finally Billy Carter says to her, “Are you married?” After she said yes, he added, “Does your husband know you are here?”

He then ended up getting Charles’ number, talked to him and asked him if he knew what his wife was doing. Charles assured him he was aware she was on a reporting trip to Plains, and the conversation ended with Billy adding, “As long as you think she is OK.”

By this time, Ms. Siskin was, as she said, “startled beyond belief” at the somewhat humorous interaction with Billy Carter, who was 13 years younger than his older brother and ended up dying in 1988 at the age of only 51.

After the introduction, Mr. Adams then told him what they are really needing other than a Billy Beer: they were wanting to find some stories freshly brewing in a journalistic way.

“Curtis asks Billy, who are your close relatives?” Ms. Siskin remembered. “And he tells us the people to go to. He said to tell them that he said I can talk to them.”

And that began a series of scoops that even the national reporters would have even enjoyed getting. And Ms. Siskin even talked to some of the big-name national reporters as well. That included Bob Schieffer of CBS News, pioneering White House woman print journalist Helen Thomas, and Jim Kincaid and Sam Donaldson of ABC News, among others.

According to some old articles found on microfilm at the Chattanooga Public Library, they all talked of how accessible Jimmy Carter seemed to be – with Mr. Schieffer saying the future president even still had a listed phone number in the phone directory. Ms. Thomas also described the small town of Plains as being like a Norman Rockwell painting or Saturday Evening Post magazine cover. Many of the members of the press were staying at the Best Western in nearby Americus, Ga.

Ms. Siskin also interviewed Jimmy Carter’s son, Chip; First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s mother, Allethea “Allie” Smith; and Jimmy Carter’s 88-year-old uncle, Alton Carter, the older brother of the president’s already deceased father.

She also talked to a few locals, including Faye West, who headed the simplistic but popular Faye’s Barbecue Villa where the press, the Secret Service and even the locals could enjoy a good and home-cooked dinner.

Another story she wrote focused on an interview with Ann Dodson, who was chosen by Rosalynn Carter to lead a group helping decorate the White House.

Ms. Siskin also wrote a story about a popular cookbook a Plains women’s club had put out. It had gained traction with the Jimmy Carter presidential campaign, in part due to the fact that Billy Carter’s wife, Sybil, was a member.

Ms. Siskin added that over the years, some of the contacts were renewed, and that she and lifestyle editor Helen Exum, the daughter of Roy McDonald, even got to attend a state dinner at the White House while Jimmy Carter was president. Sitting at their table was national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.

And over the years, she has not forgotten the few days she spent in Plains, made easier by the interference led by Curtis Adams, the colorful man from East Ridge, who died in 2019 at age 86.

“I couldn’t believe he asked me to go,” she said of Mr. McDonald. “But Curtis made it easy.”

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jcshearer2@comcast.net