Hi there Jeff my Great grandfather was John Gentry Keener of Prarie, Yell Co Ar born in 1900. He was the blacksmith who had a shop out by Wayne Farms poultry until his death in 1991. He was a neighbor and friend of Dizzy and I have heard stories of the two of them hunting squirrel with rocks as boys and picking cotton. I verified their proximity from census reports because I knew he always said he could have went to play ball with Dean had he not been married which he was in late 1921.
I was fortunate to have been old enough to remember his stories and young enough to enjoy listening to them. I also have one of his and my grandmothers cotton pickers log books.

Thanks for adding a local’s viewpoint! I really have enjoyed learning some of the behind the scenes story to one of the year’s top movies. Guess next time I head west on I-40 I’ll have to stop in Yell County!

I live in Yell County, Arkansas. I did not however, grow up here. I do know cotton was grown here years ago and there is still a standing cottin gin building (Yell County Gin) in Dardanelle, Arkansas; the town Mattie mentions where her fine lawyer J. Daggett was from. The building is currently being used for tractor sales. It’s back in a residential area of town, not on the main road. They grew a lot of the cotton in Yell County around the river; obviously for shipping ease. Carden Bottoms was an area where they grew a lot of cotton. Now soybeans and corn fill the fields where cotton was once grown. Very little rice is grown in this area of the state. We have Magazine Mtn. in northwest Yell, and mostly in Logan County, and Danville Mtn. is in central Yell County. There is plenty of flat farm land in between for raising cattle and crops.

Wow! That’s a cool connection to make! Thanks for sharing the story as I have to admit that while I’ve gone through Yell County a number of times, I’ve not spent any time there. If you’d like to get any of your granddad’s cotton stories down to share, you can email them to jplovescotton@janiceperson.com — I’d love to share more information here in another blog post if possible.

I have seen the original before but want to see it again after seeing the new one! Thanks for the fact nerd bonding too!