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Dear Editor,

I remember the first planning sessions about what has become known as the Bogalusa Blues & Heritage Festival and talking with my late and former co-worker, Marcelle Hanemann, and my friend, Malinda White, about the dream.

It’s exactly like Jimmy Durante said it would be: “Fairy tales can come true; it can happen to you.”

What a fairy tale this journey has turned out to be and what a wonderful celebration of the blues.

We had moved to North Carolina by the time of the first festival, but I still dream of coming back and doing nothing but enjoying a Bogalusa “chill” interspersed with meals at Bino’s and YoYo’s and hugging on some severely missed friends.

You gotta know that Marcelle is smiling as she and Danny look down … counting the minutes until that first bass note and wailing voice calls out to the world that the blues are back in Bogalusa.

John H. Walker, former Daily News publisher

Tarboro, N.C.