JULY | AUGUST 2019 191cars bore banners containing slogans such as “Mississip-
pi, where three crops will buy a farm,” “Mississippi, where
sunshine spends the winter,” and “Mississippi, where na-
ture smiles on every mile.” There was even a unique ban-
ner on one car with the word “Mississippi” drawn with the
human eye displacing the letter “I,” announcing that the
“eyes have it.”
A photo bearing the date of August 22, 1926, shows
195 people pictured near the railroad terminal in Rich-
mond, Virginia. On the very next day, the entire party was
a guest of the Washington Senators baseball team where
they were delighted to watch the Senators All-Star sec-
ond baseman Charles Solomon “Buddy” Myer, a native of
Ellisville, play ball. Two days later the KMB Train party
visited the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Mis-
sissippi Day was observed at its Sesquicentennial Exposi-
tion. There, the train and the delegates were feted as one
newspaper correspondent reported: “Beyond the power
of words to express.” Expo officials met them upon ar-
rival with “an abundance of Mississippi flags and with
emblems of our state in evidence on every hand.” The fol-
lowing day, its mayor, Jimmy Walker, met the train in New
York City. That night, they were guests at a dinner given
in their honor by the New York Chamber of Commerce.
Every mayor and governor along the route was presented
with a fine Mississippi-grown watermelon.
During the 1926 trip alone, more than 1 million people
toured the KMB Train exhibits. In 1930, R. Roy Coats, direc-
tor of the Ole Miss Band, wrote the song “Mississippi That
Grand Old State of Mine,” which he dedicated to then former
Governor Dennis Murphree and the Know Mississippi Better
Train. It was quickly adopted as the official theme song and
was sung often on every trip. When the Depression came in
1929, the train kept right on rolling, and by 1937, in its 13th
consecutive year of service, the famous Mississippi exhibit
train had visited 47 states of the Union, had made seven trips
into Canada, and three into Mexico. It had traveled 90,000
miles, the equivalent of three times around the Earth. Every-
where the train stopped—in 1927 alone it made 59 stops—it
was met by crowds of hundreds and many times thousands of
people eager to welcome the Mississippians and see what our
state had to offer. Following the first train trip in 1925, new
capital investments were calculated at $238,820,700. After the
1926 tour, owing greatly to the work of the delegates pictured
with this article, investments increased to $607,317,350. “The
Know Mississippi Better Train” was the right idea at the right
time. Except for four years during World War II, it ran every
summer until 1948. What a ride “The Know Mississippi Bet-
ter Train” must have been.MABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: A 17th annual tour badge identifies the tour stops as well as the name of one of the state’s representatives. The 7th
annual tour was held August 27 through September 16, 1931. A “Mississippi: That Grand Ole State of Mine” song sheet by Ole Miss band direc-
tor R. Roy Coats is dated circa 1930. OPPOSITE: The “Know Mississippi Better Train” party paused for a group photo in Richmond, Virginia in
August of 1926.