The 2023 Louisiana Legends Interview series is brought to you by presenting sponsor, the Gail and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation.

Our premiere sponsor, the William J. Doré family, with additional support provided in part by the Irene and C.B.

Pennington Foundation, Louisiana Lottery, and Roy O. Martin with the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

You know, if you know Gary, you love Gary because he's a salt of the earth kind of guy.

He's devoted father and husband, and he cares about people.

And, he's a great writer.

But more than that, he's a great person.

He's the most genuine, compassionate person I have ever met.

Like he will give, even if he does not have it to give, he will still give it.

Gary Fields, so glad to have you joining us.

Louisiana legend for 2023 right here in the LPB Studios.

Welcome, sir.

Robin, thank you so much for having me.

It is a pleasure to be here.

The pleasure is really all ours because I've been waiting to have this conversation with you to talk about a number of things, to really dig deeply into your life in your story, because we've heard so much.

And we just got to say, wow, we just started off.

But, you know, growing up with your dad, being in the military, in the Air Force, you living in Japan, Germany, and then landing in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Tell us a bit about how living abroad really helped to shape your view of the world.

You know, when I look back across my life, I understand the advantages that I had with that.

Being in the military and us being able to live abroad and then professionally.

You know, I've had the opportunity to spend some time in a number of countries and on the African continent and a little bit in South and Central America.

And what I can say is I wish that we could send every kid for a month to some foreign country, and not necessarily to Europe, but to all of these other places.

it opens up your it just opens up the world to you when you see these other cultures.

Africa was really eye opening for me because I went in there with a the good old American eye on, oh my gosh, they don't have electricity, they don't have water with filter systems.

And all the other things.

And then I realized, you know, something late at night, they're having a good time.

They're socializing, they're outside, they're laughing.

They don't seem to be bothered by the fact that they don't have electricity.

In my neighborhood in Maryland, if the power goes out from 15 to 20 minutes, everybody screaming, it's over.

And you hear generators pumping up and everything else, but you've got people who are living their entire lives.

So it kind of made me reassess.

Yeah, just what is what it is that we value and what's so important for us.

what kind of led you into the space of journalism college, all of that?

What what brought that about?

You know, some of the most formative years for me was when we did finally get to the States, and my family came back and decided to retire, where both of my parents were from.

And that's Alexandria.

And, you know, just just what, a couple hours north of Baton Rouge and.

I was good at certain things because one of the things from going to the schools overseas, and I've always wondered, why can't we just replicate the school systems that we send our diplomats kids and our military kids to because they didn't have any limits on what they thought we could learn?

And what was interesting, especially back in the 60s, those military schools were just integrated seamlessly.

Right.

And here in the United States, that was a struggle.

Yeah.

You you.

when we got back to the States.

you know, professional career, she truly valued education.

So when we would have discussions, it wasn't really debatable whether or not I was going to go to college.

She didn't know how we were going to pay for it.

Okay.

But I was going, Gary graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1982.

Then he went to work on a master's degree in English from Northwestern State in Natchitoches.

He quietly did little things, at northwestern that were really, really big things to Blue Key National honor fraternity, a student union governing board.

he was an R.A. at Barnardo Hall, one of the oldest dorms at northwestern.

In 1985, Gary joined the Shreveport Times, where he led coverage of six parishes.

He reported on a variety of issues, including school boards, city councils, and military news.

He also covered night cops and the growing problems of crack cocaine and gang wars.

In 1990, Gary went national, moving to Washington, D.C. to work for USA today.

He eventually moved to The Washington Times, where he was a police reporter during the city's record high homicide rates.

He returned to USA today for ten years before joining The Wall Street Journal in 2000.

So, you know, what are the stories you worked on that you're especially proud of in this storytelling career that you've had?

think I was in Shreveport and somebody had called that.

There were a bunch of babies that had been, you know, that was stillborn and they hadn't been buried.

Wow.

So we started writing stories about this the thing.

So and I remember the headline was forgotten no more.

And because they don't know about them.

So that and making sure they do the right thing.

Sure.

my accountability is to look at you and make sure you know the right thing to do.

and that means further back, I'm going to tell you the stories that you should know and the people you should be paying attention to, because then from that point on, you can't say you didn't know because I just told you.

It's the power of the pen.

I mean, totally personified is what I'm hearing.

what's the legacy you want to leave I want to make sure that people don't walk by and treat anybody as if they're invisible.

My legacy is All right.

No crusader without a cape.

But you, crusader with your pin?

Yes.

Computer.

Yes.

I've actually I've tried to be, because we feel like.

newsrooms who I will end here.

just because I was thinking about it, you made a comment at the legends gala, and you said that Louisiana was in your soul, and I think everybody in the room felt it.

They resonated across the room when you said, Louisiana's in my soul, and you've been away living many places in mostly in the DMV now, expound on that a little bit.

You what that means for me is there's a character, there's a spirituality that we all share and.

The best way for me to synthesize that is you get up every day and you acknowledge that maybe life's tough, but somebody has got it tougher.

And if you are a true Louisiana and you try to actually reach back no matter what your circumstances are, you save enough to try to help the next person.

my Aunt Mary had 11 kids.

Wow.

But would find ways to actually help me.

If you pass it on, kids.

Yeah, I was the 12th kid and probably the one that could.

I would eat all 11 or the other ones combined.

Yeah, but she would actually there was always room.

There was always enough.

Now I know now that, well, we didn't really have a whole heck of a lot, but we always had enough.

And they made a way to stress that my grandmother Bonnie, my mom Shirley on Mary, they made a way for all of us to always have enough.

Now, I'm not going to say that folks didn't live without the stresses, but that's what having Louisiana in your soul is to me, is you acknowledge that things are a little bit tough for you, but then you look over here at somebody else, and you take it as your responsibility to try to help anybody who is in need.

here.

It feels.

Thank you for giving to us this evening.

Thank you for this conversation and we wish you well.

And congratulations again.

Is a 2023 Louisiana legend.

For.

The 2023 Louisiana Legends Interview series is brought to you by presenting sponsor, the Gail and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation.

Our premiere sponsor, the William J. Doré family, with additional support provided in part by the Irene and C.B.

Pennington Foundation, Louisiana Lottery, and Roy O. Martin with the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.