title: Early Poke : A Great Southern Humorist Looks at Life's Pitfalls and Pinnacles
author: Poke McHenry
description: From the time his persona Poke McHenry was first introduced to newspaper readers in 1978 until his final regular column about 14 years later, Hubert Victor Smith dispensed thoughts from an "unreconstructed, middle-aged Huck Finn." Mr. Smith left high school at 15 to help his parents support a growing family. He started in the newspaper business in 1939 as a reporter with the Fitzgerald Leader, becoming feature writer, photographer and editor. After spending time as a civilian instructor with the Army Air Corps in Texas, Mississippi and Georgia during World War II, he went to work for newspapers in Alabama before joining the Albany (Ga.) Herald in 1950. He spent the next 22 years there, rising to managing editor. Leaving the newspaper business briefly, Mr. Smith tried his hand at selling fishing bait and tackle until returning in December 1974 as a copy editor for the Times-Union. He was named head of the news desk three years later and coordinated coverage of national and international news. During this time, the newly assigned editor of the paper's Georgia edition was searching desperately for a columnist with little success. As a joke, Mr. Smith wrote a column under the name Poke McHenry and described himself as a veteran Georgia newsman of wide reputation who now spent his days catfishing. The editor loved the column but went nuts trying to find anyone who had heard of the writer. Mr. Smith eventually fessed up. The column ran sporadically for about two years in Georgia before being picked up in all the Times-Union editions and published three times a week. Thus was born the celebrity known as Poke McHenry, in demand for speeches to civic clubs, judging barbecue cookoffs, beauty pageants and other events around the area. Even after Mr. Smith retired from the Times-Union in January 1992, he continued to write the column for small newspapers around the South and make appearances until his death in 2008. This is his first book.
zlib_text: “Pokey” Areion Fury MC #4
  By Esther E. Schmidt
   
  
  Copyright © 2017 by Esther E. Schmidt All rights reserved.
   
  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without permission in writing from
  the author.
   
  This book is a work of fiction. Incidents, names, places, characters and other stuff
  mentioned in this book is the results of the author’s imagination. Pokey is a work of fiction. If
  there is any resemblance, it is entirely coincidental.
   
  This content is for mature audiences only. Please do not read if sexual situations, violence
  and explicit language offends you.
  
  Cover design by:
  Esther E. Schmidt
   
  Editor:
  Virginia Tesi Carey
   
  Photographer/ Model:
  Joram Krol
  
  Christi Durbin
  Distance isn’t an issue when someone means to world to you. Though I’m damn glad we
  got to close that shit till less than an inch.
  Love you, babe.
   
  
  Virginia Tesi Carey
  Thank you so much for your amazing work. Loved your help with Pokey, making me
  smile through edits. I can’t wait to work with you agai