Four States Living Magazine

12/06/2024

In the film A League of Their Own, Hollywood icon Tom Hanks (playing Jimmy Dugan) tells his players, “There’s no crying in baseball!” The character might have felt differently if he had ever been to a Savannah Bananas baseball game, where fans have been known to laugh so hard that tears flow. Former Texas High baseball player Zack Phillips can attest to that, having witnessed the fun and excitement during his rookie season with the Savannah team.

The Savannah Bananas are an exhibition barnstorming baseball team, based in Savannah, Georgia. The team was founded in 2016 as a collegiate summer baseball team, but since 2022, they have been a purely “exhibition” team, playing only against their three partner teams, the Party Animals, the Firefighters, and the Texas Tailgaters. The Bananas are often compared to basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters—a fitting, if not one-for-one, comparison.

“Everyone thinks the Bananas are like the Globetrotters,” Zack said. “We are in a way, but the Globetrotters put on the same show every time. The Bananas’ show is different every game. We have different antics and different walkups. We try to do things no one has ever seen before on the field, and try our best to never repeat what we do.”

Read Zack's full story here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/12/1/everything-is-coming-up-bananas

12/06/2024

Around 3:15 a.m. on the morning of October 17th, 2024, George Carpenter awoke in his second-story bedroom to a distant beeping sound. He roused his wife, Julia. “What’s that noise?” he asked groggily. Julia got out of bed and shuffled downstairs toward the sound. When she reached the end of the staircase, she saw smoke coming from under a buffet: the photo album she’d recently put there was inexplicably on fire. She shouted for George as she picked up the burning book, intending to toss it outside. But when she opened the door, the influx of oxygen caused flames to erupt all around her. She screamed more loudly.

The couple made it outside with only the pajamas they’d donned hours earlier. Their home of 29 years—with a lifetime of possessions and their dogs, Sweetie and Leon, trapped inside—was burning.

Read the Carpenters' full story here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/12/1/grief-and-gratitude

12/05/2024

Head to the Texas Convention Center today from 11-1 for Bramlett Beans & Cornbread. $5 or 6 canned goods.

12/01/2024

12/01/2024

Between finishing off those Thanksgiving leftovers and watching football, make sure to get yourself a copy of our December issue which is out on stands around town now! And if all that turkey and dressing has you too stuffed to get out, you can check out our digital edition on our website.

www.fourstatesliving.com/

11/22/2024

MISTLETOE MARKET STARTS TODAY!
Join The Junior League of Texarkana, Inc. for a magical weekend of sugarplum dreams at this year’s enchanting Mistletoe Market. The 37th annual holiday market, themed “Night at the Nutcracker,” will take place November 22–24, 2024, at the Holiday Inn Texarkana Arkansas Convention Center. This cherished holiday tradition is not just an opportunity to shop for unique gifts—it’s a chance to make a meaningful impact in the local community!

Read more about this year's Mistletoe Market
and the Junior League of Texarkana here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/11/1/leading-the-league

11/17/2024

Inside our homes every weeknight, Dr. Johnette Magner delivers the news of the day as the co-anchor of the KTBS-TV3 evening news at 5 and 6 p.m. She became the co-anchor of the evening news in 2022, but this was not her first job at KTBS.

“The first time I was at KTBS, I had an infant,” Johnette said. “He is now 30 years old, so that tells you how long I was gone before I came back.”

Johnette’s first stint at KTBS was as a consumer reporter—a relatively straightforward position at the time. “We had photographers who shot and edited the stories, and since there was no internet, we did not write stories for a website,” she said.

Now, as co-anchor of the evening news, Johnette wears many more hats. “Today, we are called ‘multimedia journalists’ because we create stories for several platforms, not just TV,” she said. “I’ve shot my own stories and stand-ups, edited the video and audio, done voiceovers, and created graphics, in addition to doing the writing and reporting I’d done in the past.”

Read Johnette's full story here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/11/1/anchored-in-the-ark-la-tex

11/12/2024

Cookbook author and content creator Will Edmond was born and raised in Douglassville, Texas, on property that has been in his family for generations.

“The land was passed down from my great-great-grandmother,” he said. “Everybody lived on the same six acres. My great-grandmother had a philosophy of family taking care of each other, and of building community.”

Throughout his childhood, community values fed Will’s soul, and fresh, home-cooked meals fed his body.

“I grew up cooking turnip greens and hot-water cornbread and fried chicken and ribs and all the stuff that we eat here in East Texas, right?” he said. “I grew up with family who loved cooking, so I was always around good food. And there aren’t any restaurants in Douglassville, so everybody cooked and honed their cooking skills. I’ve been cooking since I was six years old.”

Read Will's full article here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/11/1/a-return-to-his-roots

11/08/2024

Despite the rainy weather, 17-year-old Carter Beck was looking forward to a fun weekend with friends at Lake Hamilton. The previous night, the teen had enjoyed the Pleasant Grove prom and casino night, and he was already packed up and ready for the trip. After a breakfast of pancakes and peanut butter, Carter picked up his friend Drew Walters, and the boys headed out, full of excitement. The date was May 5th, 2024.

A few hours later, Carter’s entire world would be turned upside down.

As they came into Prescott, Arkansas, wet road conditions caused Carter and Drew to hydroplane on the interstate, spin out of control, and crash into a tree. After the impact, Carter was unresponsive. Drew could not find his phone, but he saw Carter’s and called 911. Minutes later, Carter’s parents, Amanda and Adam Beck, received a call no parents would want to receive.

Read Carter's full story here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/11/1/surviving-amp-thriving

11/01/2024

Smell that? It's autumn air, pumpkin spice, and freshly printed magazines! The November issue is going out now so make sure to grab a copy! And as always you can view the digital version on our website. Happy Fall, y'all! 🍂🍁🦃🏈🍲🍁🍂

https://www.fourstatesliving.com/

10/28/2024

“We’re going to take you on a journey of my career, and I’ll tell stories. A lot of those stories will lead into a song that means a lot to me or relates to that story. And, yeah, it’s going to be a fun night, just because of the fact that I love to have fun on stage.”

Norm Lewis, an American actor and baritone singer, will take the stage alongside the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra at the Perot Theatre on Saturday, November 9th at 7 p.m. to present Blockbuster Broadway with Norm Lewis. The performance will feature musical numbers from Norm’s vast repertoire of beloved Broadway hits.

Norm Lewis is an acclaimed performer who has earned Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and SAG Award nominations for his work across stage, screen, and music. He is widely recognized for his recurring role on the hit TV series Scandal, as well as his film appearance in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. He recently starred in the national tour of the Tony Award–winning A Soldier’s Play, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End Concert of Love Never Dies. In the fall of 2021, Lewis returned to Broadway, starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle In The Square Theatre. His performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess also garnered him several award nominations.

Read more about Norm here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/9/30/norm-lewis-a-life-onstage

10/25/2024

In 2013, at age 25, Jessica Pickens discovered that she carried the BRCA 1 gene, which gave her a 65% chance of a fatal breast cancer diagnosis. A busy mother of two, she closed her eyes, hoping to forget about the threat. For the next few years, she concentrated on raising her children, Karson and Quinnleigh, all the while praying for a quiet, unannounced deliverance from a cancerous fate. Yet with each fond memory the Pickens family made, the latent terror of breast cancer crept into Jessica’s idle thoughts.

Things changed in 2021, when Jessica picked up Four States Living Magazine’s annual “Fabulous 40 and Under” issue. It showcased Jessica’s old friend Nikki Kitchens Morphew, who carried a similar gene. Jessica picked up her phone and reconnected with Nikki. They spoke at length of Nikki’s challenges and eventual victory over the CHEK 2 gene. Nikki laid out a road map for the journey that lay before Jessica, whether or not Jessica chose to pursue it proactively.

All of her hesitancy faded as she stood at her stepfather’s graveside. Taken suddenly and far too early by an unexpected battle with cancer, he left behind a family reeling with his unanticipated loss. As Jessica wrestled with thoughts of her own mortality, the BRCA 1 gene, and the path in front of her, she looked up to see her two children and husband grieving the loss of their family member. How much worse would it be for them if she also descended into the ground?

Read Jessica's full story here:
https://www.fourstatesliving.com/feature-stories/2024/9/30/ino7y121tr76gog26kpf9tbm7buftz