Mr.Haney's World

Jim...............Lauren...............Richard

I am a salesman, started when I was ten selling newspaper subscriptions and have been at it ever since. Was a manufacture representative for mainly soft lines and traveled Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana, E. Texas, E. Tennessee and Mississippi. Graduate of Central Missouri State University at Warrensburg, Mo and have a degree in retailing and a minor in theatre. Married the day I graduated from college. I had one daughter. Was divorced in 1970 and asked to be transferred and was sent to Little Rock to handle the Wal-Mart Account. . I knew I was going to hate the South but came to love it. I came out in Little Rock and became politically active there. I do believe I was the first openly gay person.in Arkansas. I met Richard in 1971 when I was in Dallas for the apparel mart show.

Richard got a job promotion to Memphis in 1996 and had to be here. I am twelve years older and it was only right that I make the effort to be here where his career had taken him. I have always disliked Memphis but here I am now. We are both l00% open and it has never been a problem for us. I am also the grandfather of two.

Richard and I have a wide range of friends, both gay and straight. We like to entertain and like to mix straights and gays together at a party.

We started the Daddy (that's me) and Ruth-Anne (thats Richard) Fish Fry in Little Rock in l987. This is the largest gay fund raiser in the state. We have had many politicians come to speak at this event..

I'm an avid reader (Pat Convoy, Larry McMurtrey and Patricia Cornwell) and write fiction myself. I am published regularly in the local Memphis Gay Triangle Journal and other regional publications. I have one completed novel which as of yet is not published.. I would say my writing was similar to Armistead Maupin style in TALES OF THE CITY.

I love movies and am a great trivia player in the movie category but hate the sports category .However, I find it hard to sit still long enough to play board games. I just want to answer the questions and go on.

I like music, especially Joni James, the Hilltoppers, and the Four Aces. I am also a C&W music fan and also like Loretta, Tammy and Dolly. Also like Lorrie Morgan, Collin Raye and Aaron Tippin (and how) also a major Marilyn Monroe collector with one of the biggest collection of artifacts in the South.

I'm gregarious and really like all sorts of people and a stranger is simply someone that I haven't met.

I belong to the Memphis Lesbian & Gay Coalition for Justice, the Memphis Chapter of Black and White Men Together, the Alliance Leather Club of Memphis, and the Mid-South Writers Group.(Miss Carlisle and Miss Fleming )In a nut shell I am a "gay senior citizen" who is an activist as well as a father and a grandfather.