Our Finest Hour

On November 10, 1950, William Faulkner received a telephone call in Oxford notifying him that the Swedish Academy had awarded him the Nobel Prize. On December 8, Faulkner and his daughter, Jill, boarded a Scandinavian Airlines plane at New York’s La Guardia Airport for the final leg of their journey to Stockholm. On December 10, 1950, King Gustaf Adolf of Sweden presented the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature to William Cuthbert Faulkner of Oxford, Mississippi. –The Cofield Collection/ Video capture from the Swedish Academy Nobel Prize presentation

Most small towns mark their worth and validate their greatness by remembering and telling the stories of their time in the spotlight. A high school sports championship, a native son who went on to the Governor’s mansion, or the little girl who grew up and was crowned Miss Mississippi.

Oxford has all of those and many more: National Champions, Miss Americas, Super Bowl MVPs, writers, celebrities and a whole host of true life characters who have made the local, state, national and international news. Oxford has had more “15 minutes of fame” than most small towns could even dream about.

But our finest hour still holds true above the rest. It actually happened some 7,143 miles from Lafayette County when King Gustaf Adolf of Sweden presented the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature to William Cuthbeth Faulkner of Oxford, Mississippi. –John Cofield johncofield@gmail.com