Bill Kinney Died Yesterdy

Bill Kinney died yesterday at age 91.  He was a reporter for the Marietta daily Journal then chief editor, and retired.  I'm sure The Marietta Daily Journal will do a great obituary, so I am not trying to outdo them, as if I could.

When I was in Miss Alberta  Shouse's class at Waterman Street School Bill showed up now and then.  He was courting Alberta..  Bill was a young dashing reporter for the Marietta Daily Journal.  They were married shortly after that time.

Along that same time my daddy, who was the new Cobb County Police, raided the largest whiskey still ever to be found in Cobb County.   Reporter Bill Kinney went along  to witness the raid, and report on it first had,  They poured all the whiskey out and the fumes were overwhelming.   The young reporter got intoxicated.*

When Daddy died the Marietta Journal had their standard obituary**.  , My mother, who was not afraid to take on The Marietta Daily Journal, or City Hall for that matter, called Bill and reamed him out for not mentioning Ed Hunter in his column. after all the tips Daddy had given him.

He quickly correctly that oversight .  In his next column he recalled the time Daddy and his men raided Aunt Fanny's Cabin in Smyrna.  It was a dry county, but Mr. Hester, the owner and manager had an "understanding" with the local officials.   To Daddy the law was the law, and if you broke it you get arrested.  He praised Ed Hunter for being an honest cop, regardless of the consequents..

Through the years I have enjoyed his columns of the history of Marietta and his boyhood adventures in  the then-small-town. One that comes to mind,  I think he had a crush on Virginia Hill, girlfriend of mobster Bugsy  Siege when she came to town to visit her mother, he and other boys would follow her riding around on her horse.

My son Rocky majored in journalism and interviewed Bill as a well known successful newspaper man.  Rocky said he was very nice, but also frail and fragile.  Along the same time I saw him in line to vote, and I concur, he did look very fragile and weak.

Several years ago I told him in an email the time his late wife Alberta gave me a pigeon and I confessed  that it had died under my care, eaten by something, and I never told her.  He replied seeing the humor in it.

I think he was very fair in his editorials, factual reporting,  editorial, and what was buzzing between elected officials.

*In case you are wondering where the still was, it was about where Walmart on South Cobb Parkway (aka South 4-Lane) just north of Terrell Mill Road.

**Which of course the obituary  left my name off as a survivor.  I was not surprised, of course they did,  Invisible People are not mentioned very much.