Billy Joe Shaver, the man Willie Nelson has said “may be the best songwriter alive today,” will retrace the path he took as a poor, share-cropping boy riding loads of cotton into Corsicana in the 1940s, when he is honored as the Grand Marshal of the 2009 Derrick Days Parade on Saturday, April 25.

An unplugged acoustic performance and a book and CD signing will follow the parade at 10:30, inside Caleb’s Diner, 125 N. Beaton. Caleb’s is the oldest continuously operating soda fountain in Texas and was known as Hashop’s during Shaver’s childhood.

A well-fed cow, a hundred bingo squares and $500 of foldin’ money to the winner….it’s time for Cow Patty Bingo! Tickets are available from Derrick Days Committee members or at the Visitor Center for $25. Square assignments will be drawn at 7 p.m. Friday night, near the corner of Beaton & 5th, with the cow to roam the game board shortly thereafter. You need not be present to win.

Runners and walkers will take to the streets of Corsicana during Derrick Days for the first time in nine years, when the traditional Oil City Mini-thon returns to the annual event Saturday, April 25. The 5K run begins at 7:30 a.m. at the YMCA, and also ends at the YMCA. A one mile “Fun Run” follows the start of the 5K and will include a lane for those with children and pets. Entry fee proceeds benefit the Corsicana Education Foundation. Participants will receive a commemorative t-shirt.

Registration Form

Laura Miller will be the keynote speaker at VOICE Inc.’s 5th Annual Spring Luncheon Thursday, April 24 at the Cook Center. Before serving as mayor of Dallas from 2002-2004, Miller worked as a journalist for several publications in New York, Miami and Dallas. A leading clean air activist, she currently serves as a public relations consultant to Summit Power Group which seeks to build a low emissions, 600 megawatt integrated gasification combined cycle coal plant at an unannounced location in Texas.