Attention! Calling All Poets Laureate!

While we were on our extended Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, one of our Meebo patrons asked for information on Mississippi's State Poets Laureate. Mississippi's first poet laureate was appointed by Governor Ross Barnett in 1963. Life-time appointments are now made by the legislature. These are Mississippi's poets laureate:

Maude Willard Leet Prenshaw 1963-1971
Louise Moss Montgomery 1973-January 1978
Winifred Hamrick Farrar July 31, 1978-present

Be sure to go to the Library of Congress's state poets laureate pages for more information on these Mississippi poets. Last but not least, we managed to dig up a mention of a 19th century poet laureate. According to Mississippi Scenes: Notes on Literature and History, Samuel Newton Berryhill was "recognized as Poet Laureate of the State" (23) when his Backwoods Poems was published in 1878.
Howell, Elmo. Mississippi Scenes: Notes on Literature and History. Memphis, TN: E. Howell, 1992. Print.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/main/poets/mississippi.html