Assignment

Lydel Sims (1916-1995) wrote for the Jackson Sun and the Nashville Banner before landing at the Memphis Commercial Appeal, where he wrote the front-page column Assignment Memphis for nearly fifty years. He also wrote "Watch Your Language," a weekly column about words, word origins, and grammar, and taught writing at Southwestern and Memphis State University. Later in his career he wrote briefly for the Memphis Flyer. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Sims earned his master's degree from Vanderbilt University. He wrote biographies of the Civil War balloonist Thaddeus Lowe and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He co-wrote Wake Island Command with Rear Adm. Winfield Scott Cunningham and War Fish with U.S. Rep. George W. Grider. An adept wordsmith, he used his column to make gentle yet pithy observations about the everyday world. In spare and elegant language, he paid tribute to, among other things, shirts with two pockets and the importance of grits, and examined such issues as the perils of pigeons, snow, and foolish bureaucracy.