Narrating the Bucolic South: How Southern Living Reflected and Shaped the South in the 1990s

Authors

• Krista C. Wright, Brigham Young University - Provo

Keywords

Southern Living magazine history, New South identity, magazine modernization and tradition

Abstract

In December 1995 at a company Christmas party, previous editor Gary McCalla spoke with Emory Cunningham, sitting president and chair who oversaw the transition from the practical Progressive Farmer to a lifestyle magazine for the “New South.” Looking around the room, Cunningham remarked, “These young people have no idea where we came from.” McCalla recalled a memo he and John Logue, creative director of the magazine, had written in the early days, outlining “what we believed had to be done to save Southern Living.” At that moment, the two noticed the song playing in the background— “History” by Michael Jackson. For McCalla, a longtime editor who had witnessed the magazine through the years, the moment demonstrated how deeply Southern Living was built on history—and why recognizing that history mattered for understanding the institution it had become. That moment captured the defining tension facing Southern Living in the 1990s: a magazine attempting to modernize while remaining tethered to its own carefully curated past.

Recommended Citation

Wright, Krista C. (2026) "Narrating the Bucolic South: How Southern Living Reflected and Shaped the South in the 1990s," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 55: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol55/iss1/6