Tennessee Pennessee

This is no ordinary ballpoint pen.

It was once used by the great playwright, Tennessee Williams.

I keep it on a bookcase at work. It’s a great conversation piece.

It's timely to tell the story of the “pen” for a couple of reasons. Tennessee Williams has roots in Macon.

Last weekend, the Georgia Literary Festival was held in Macon. Also, one of Williams’ most famous plays, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’’ was a recent attraction at Theatre Macon.

Williams came to Macon during the summer of 1942. He stayed in a small apartment on North Arlington Place. (The house is no longer there. It's now a church parking lot.) He was related to Sidney Lanier, and his given name was Thomas Lanier Williams. His aunts always told him he got his writing genes from his Macon ancestor.

It was here Williams began his friendship with Jordan "Big Daddy" Massee. He later based his "Big Daddy" character on Massee in the play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.'' Burl Ives was Big Daddy in both the play and movie. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where Massee and Williams worshipped, is mentioned in the script.

Williams based another character in that Pulitzer-prize winning play on a woman from east Macon. Margaret Powell was the inspiration behind "Maggie the Cat." He was fascinated with Powell's resiliency -- always "landing on her feet" -- although she was described as being "as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof." Barbara Bel Geddes played Maggie the Cat on Broadway, and Elizabeth Taylor played the role in the movie.

A few years ago, I was giving a tour of Macon to a group during the Cherry Blossom Festival. After the tour, a man named Mike Pantera from Minnesota told me a story about meeting Tennessee Williams when he was in high school at a play in Minneapolis.

He said his high school English teacher took a group to the theater and spotted Williams in the audience. She was a huge fan, but was too nervous to ask for his autograph.

Mike, a fearless teenager, said he would get the autograph for her. He took the playbill and approached Williams, who asked him if he had pen.

Mike reached in his pocket and found a rather ordinary Papermate pen. Later, he stuck in a drawer and kept it for more than 30 years.

A few weeks after the festival, I got a letter from Mike, who now lives in Florida.

He sent me the pen as a keepsake. I call it my “Tennessee Pennessee” and now you know the story behind it.