Big Jim Folsom: Alabama’s most uninhibited governor

This week begins a four-part series of stories surrounding Alabama’s most legendary colorful governor, James E. “Big Jim” Folsom.

Folsom was the epitome of unbridled candidness. Late in his second term, he had been on a week-long trip to Mobile with his buddies, but he had to come back to Montgomery to give a speech to the national convention of American Textile Manufacturers Association. It was a large and distinguished crowd of executives from all over the country and they were meeting in Alabama, so the governor was to give them his official welcoming speech.