The society desk is oftentimes one of the most valuable offices on the paper if the occupant be a woman of high intelligence ... a woman of poise and dignity -- a woman whom hostesses will be forced to treat as an equal.
-- Getting and Writing News, a 1927 book by Dix Harwood
They say that if you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.
Another good way to make the Creator laugh is to tell him what you'd never do.
That thought came to mind when I got the news that Phyllis Brandon, the founding editor of this newspaper's High Profile section, passed away Jan. 11 at the age of 84. Along with that thought came the memories.
As her Jan. 13 Democrat-Gazette obituary indicated, Phyllis was the perfect person to steer the section, having shown tenacity as a young news reporter covering the Central High crisis and having cultivated a wealth of relational capital. She was the epitome of Dix Harwood's ideal society-desk occupant.
Phyllis was also a "newsroom mom" of sorts. She wasn't the type of mom who would scream and holler at you if she felt you weren't putting your best face forward. She was the type who would either give you one of those "Really?" looks, or nicely but firmly point out what a twit you were being. Which you might resent at that moment -- then later admit to yourself that she had a point, but you'd rather go streaking down Broadway during rush-hour traffic than admit that to her. (Phyllis was also our own Emily Post. To this day, if I get flowers, the first thing I'll do is remove the card and the plastic stand.)
Anyway, when High Profile first came out in 1986, I didn't, to put it politely, understand it. The existence of society reporting, period, was foreign to me. Covering events for the section seemed a fate worse than death to an introvert by nature who, at nearly 58, sometimes still has to fight crowd shyness. To each his own. I could never do that stuff, I thought. And what's the point?
I spent a long time giving High Profile the side-eye. But somehow, my fate was tied to it.
In the early 1990s, when the Democrat-Gazette took the High Profile section statewide, the old Sunday Style section for which I wrote at the time was discontinued. Back in those days, each Features section editor had a reporter or two who wrote exclusively for that section. But when High Profile became more high profile, it was decided that all the Features reporters would contribute its cover stories, not just the reporter who was assigned to Phyllis. And Let's Talk, which had appeared in the dearly departed Style section, appeared in High Profile for a spell. Phyllis grinned and bore it, and me, throughout that period. I sometimes caught flack from old-school High Profile readers who didn't understand the column, and who probably had even more choice words for Phyllis about it.
Then came that fateful day, circa winter's end 2009 and not long after a sad round of layoffs that shrank the newsroom staff and led to the transfer of the High Profile reporter from Features to news side. My boss called me into one of the small conference rooms to tell me that I would now be the one to help Phyllis cover parties. I sat there, stunned. And thinking of Job 3:25 in the Good Book: "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me."
My next order of business was to complain to everybody who'd sit still long enough to listen. I remember one co-worker telling me that perhaps the role would be a vehicle by which the Lord was going to get a blessing to me.
Now, with my blinders of selfishness off, I can only speculate as to what Phyllis had to go through ... losing her regular writer and being handed the part-time services of a raw, and not so enthusiastic, recruit. I can only wonder how loudly she must have been screaming inside as she trained me in party reporting before soon moving on to edit our magazine, Arkansas Life, and turning High Profile over to current editor Rachel O'Neal.
Needless to say, taking on High Profile party-coverage duties didn't turn out to be a fate worse than death. It turned out to be many things.
It was the beginning of my education on philanthropy, and the spirit of philanthropy, in Little Rock and Arkansas. It has been an introduction to the biggest charity givers in Central Arkansas as well as a chance to become acquainted with these givers and be inspired by them. It has been an education on event planning and event decor, and those in town who are good at it.
It has been an education on what it means to dress casual, business casual, cocktail, black tie-optional and black tie. It has been an education on etiquette -- how to eat at multiple-fork, multiple-stemware dinners and outdoor crawfish boils. It has been a way to overcome that aforementioned crowd shyness, learn to talk to people, meet readers who are familiar with my other work and mingle instead of hugging a wall.
Best of all, High Profile coverage has been a great way to gain relational capital ... the same valuable relational capital that Phyllis cultivated.
So that co-worker was right. The Lord did get a blessing to me. Thank you, Phyllis, for being the pioneer, and the vessel, that led to that blessing.
Email:
hwilliams@arkansasonline.com
Style on 01/19/2020