Former Commercial Appeal columnist, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, greeted  a receptive standing-room-only crowd last night at the opening of the Memphis Public Library’s Adult Summer Reading program. Admirers packed the largest meeting room at the Central Library and waited patiently in line to have Rheta inscribe copies of her new book “Poor Man’s Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana.” (NewSouth Books: $23.95)
  She seemed glad to be back in Memphis, opening her comments with the quote: “It’s nice to be remembered in a place you can’t forget.”
   Rheta began working for The Commercial Appeal in 1980 at its Greenville, Miss., bureau. She started writing a column for The Commercial Appeal in 1982 and left for The Atlanta Journal Constitution in 1994. Upon her departure, she commented: “”I think when you start recognizing the names on the angry letters, maybe you’ve been there too long. I’ve had a real good run in Memphis. I enjoyed it. I just wanted to try something different.”
    She explained that she went into journalism because she thought it was a profession that would never require her to speak in public or wear panty hose. Unfortunately, she said, only one of those things was true.
  However much she might despise speaking in public, she’s good at it, and the room rang with laughter as she recounted entertaining tales of her adventures in journalism.
    Rheta quit her job in Atlanta in 2001 and now writes for King Features Syndicate. She still lives on the farm in Iuka, Mississippi, for about nine months of the year with her husband, Don Grierson, who’s a retired journalism professor.
    But in 1996 she and Don began a love affair with Louisiana’s Cajun country, and it’s in the town of Henderson in that state that she lives part of the year within walking distance of “the biggest honky tonk you’ve ever seen,” trying to grow house-high azaleas, eating wonderful food (she’s learned how to make a roux) and showing off the drive-through daiquiri stand to visitors from Mississippi.  (Read Barbara Bradley’s review of “Poor Man’s Provence” at commercialappeal.com.)
  In the Q & A part of the evening, someone asked Rheta what her next project was. She said that she wasn’t really sure - that she enjoyed not having to write very day – the freedom from the hot whip of panic and looming deadlines.
    She explained to another questioner that indeed, her ex-husband Jimmy Johnson (who’s still a friend), is the cartoonist responsible for Arlo and Janis and that she probably was Janis in the beginning. She laughs and asks us if we’ve noticed that Janis “is not as pretty as she used to be.”
    Several audience members expressed their gratitude for the pleasure that Rheta had brought into their lives through her writing; judging from their comments, there are still plenty of old yellowed clippings safe at home that bear her byline.
    To read current columns from Rheta Grimsley Johnson, go to King Features Syndicate.