In the summer before his first season in charge at Whitehaven High, former Memphis point guard Willie Kemp will coach the Beale Street Boys in The Basketball Tournament.

With an assist from Buddy the Bernedoodle, visitors to the Baptist Centers for Good Grief find a warm and comforting friend to help them cope with loss.

As a 21-year-old housekeeper at Gould’s, Eunice Boddie got up the courage to ask her boss in 1955 if she could be a hair stylist instead. Today she’s celebrating her 68th consecutive year of working with the company. 

“The Tuesday soup kitchen, run by students at Rhodes, is the longest-running college student-led soup kitchen in the country. I find this jaw-droppingly impressive.”

The former Whitehaven High star played at Missouri and Jackson State before signing this year with the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent.

Children and teens cleaned up Memphis streets including Tillman Street, Carpenter Street and Mimosa Avenue. Then, they were handed chalk.

For a time, Doris Bradshaw walked miles around the neighborhood nearly every day, telling her neighbors about the toxins at the Defense Depot — arsenic, lead, mercury and a host of other chemicals — that seeped into their soil and water. Within the first year, Doris had organized a group of about 1,500 people. 

Pancreatic cancer affects Black Americans at a rate higher than that of any other population. 

With the opening of his second Elwood’s Shack location at 4040 Park Ave. delayed until mid-July, Tim Bednarski realized he had more tomatoes than he could handle.

Terri Bosby has presided over 50 ribbon-cuttings for the Greater Memphis Chamber this year, or more than two a week. At a difficult time in Memphis, Bosby is reminding us what determination and enthusiasm can do.

It’s been 16 months since two strokes left the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board member unable to walk, speak or eat. 

The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro Baseball League that operated from 1920 to 1959.

With several thousand volunteers scheduled to come all summer, Brinkley Heights Baptist runs walk-up Bible camps on empty lots for hundreds of kids every day.

While the X’s and O’s of football are what reeled him into coaching, Matt Barnes became more interested in the interpersonal relationship side of it all as he got older.

The list of previous winners for the Distinguished Citizen Award from the AutoZone Liberty Bowl includes Elvis and Priscilla Presley, Archie and Peyton Manning and Fred Smith.

Related:

The Life and Times of Jerry Lawler: At 73, crowns keep coming for ‘The King’

Tequila is one of fastest-growing spirit sectors in the U.S., and a Memphis entrepreneur has launched a new brand with a cause, not a mascot. 

Once The King, always The King. Pro wrestler Jerry Lawler might be 73 years old, just months removed from a second stroke, and living with some heartache, but he still commands an audience, and The King is still gathering crowns. 

He helped perfect the early science of lipids, the fats in the blood that cause high blood pressure and strokes. The clinic he started at the VA Medical Center in 1985 is busier than ever. 

The Works and Big Green recently gave away 100 raised garden beds for free, complete with seeds, starters, a watering can, fertilizer and more than 60 pounds of soil. 

“She took a chance on me, and ever since then, our bond grew stronger and stronger every single year,” new Tiger Ki’Ari Cain, who lost her mother last year, said of Coach Alex Simmons.

The Youth Villages program has partnered with Renardo Baker, who was already embedded in the community, to reach out to the neighborhood’s most high-risk residents.

“When people think about Calvary, I want them to think these babies got good care and good love,” said Audrey Ivory, who’s worked at Calvary Place Child Care for more than 20 years. “I hope that people remember the legacy of Calvary as like a family...”