Starkey Flythe, Jr. Image from William McKeen.
(1935-2013) Flythe was born in Augusta, Ga., to Starkey Flythe, Sr. and Mary Bacheller Flythe. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the South and his Master of Arts degree from the University of Georgia. After teaching high school for several years in South Carolina and Georgia and following military service in Ethiopia and the Middle East, he began a career as editor for the Curtis Publishing Company. He also accompanied President Nixon on a trip to the Middle East in 1975 and interviewed a number of celebrities, including Lady Bird Johnson, Johnny Cash, Cher, James Brown, The Beach Boys and John Denver. In the early 1980s, he became a a central figure in the establishment of the Augusta Poetry Group, served as President of the Authors Club of Augusta, helped to create and develop the Sand Hills Writers Conference (now the Sand Hills Writers Series) at Augusta State University (now Georgia Regents University), represented the Poetry Society of South Carolina in the CSRA, and organized readings for the Westabou Festival and other literary events in both South Carolina and Georgia.
He published three collections of poetry in his lifetime: Paying the Anesthesiologist, They Say Dancing, and The Futile Lesson of Glue.
