Rich: Roosevelt and the ‘governmint’ cheese

Most admire Franklin D. Roosevelt, a crafty, pleasant, get-it-done type of president.He had been raised as an only child to his mother and father, though he had step-siblings. He was tremendously spoiled but not in the way that turned him mean.

Rich: The marble girl

It’s no secret – in fact, it’s becoming “fabled” pretty quickly – that Tink and I come from worlds as far apart as Mars and Jupiter.He is descended from Mayflower Pilgrims who, for generations, were well-respected New Englanders who then, in modern times, took a ride across the country to find...

Rich: The homeless

It was many winters ago in Washington, D.C., that I saw my first homeless person. He was lying over a warm vent atop the Metro train.

Rich: Jay, the good shepherd

It is conventional wisdom that you should never do business with family.

Rich: The Tinker diaries

In my office is a beige wicker suitcase with brown leather straps.Inside are 32 handwritten diaries produced by Charlie Tinker during his years working at the White House for his cherished friend, Abraham Lincoln.In another area, squirreled away by Tink, is a hand-duplicated set of those diaries.

Rich: The magical romance of trains

Whenever Tink and I visit Greenwood, Mississippi, one of our favorite places, we stay at the small Alluvian Hotel.“Please, Denise,” I ask the front desk manager, “put us as close to the train as possible.”She laughs delightedly.“Miss Ronda, you’re the only person who ever wants the room nearest the...

Rich: One million words

One million words ago, I started this column.That’s a lot of stories to tell.Additionally, I have written eleven books, including one that was turned into a television movie and one that is closing in on its 50th printing.Those books would add, roughly, another 800,000 words of characters and...

Rich: Brent’s extraordinary father

Brent’s birth, when he joined his sister, Laurie, and brother, Jay, on an Autumn day, was joyous.Brent, looking straight into his mother’s eyes, smiled with an abundance of sweetness.

Rich: Too funny to be true

This story sounds too remarkable to be true. You may doubt its veracity.But trust me: the truth it is.It began decades ago.

Rich: The colors of war

There is a multi-awarded country song, written by Jamey Johnson and Bill Anderson, with a line about two soldiers in World War II in a black-and-white photo: “You can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered; You should have seen it in color.”Last week, I was going through a drawer when I found...