When I was living at 319 W. Faunce Rd. in Oak Ridge, TN in the late
40's I got a 45 record player one Christmas. The first record I got, and probably still have, was of Burl Ives. "The Fox" was not on it but I liked almost all of his songs. In the mid 80's another VP of Swift and I were flying out of Chicago for an Albertsons store opening in Dallas. Burl and his wife were in front of us in the check in line at the airport. I introduced myself and told him how much I liked his songs and that one of my favorites was "Pretty Polly." He replied, "Oh that was good un." They sat across from us in First Class. I had a bunch of small promotional pocket knives with SIPCO printed on them I was taking to give out. I handed one to Burl. He took it and reached in his pocket and pulled out a penny and gave it to me. He said, "My daddy always told me that it was bad luck to take a knife as a gift, you should always pay for it." I really liked him. He was also a great actor and played across from Elizabeth Taylor and some other greats. Will get one of his movies sometime when we have a family reunion.
