DATE: Monday, July 7, 1997                  TAG: 9707040093

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Maddry 

                                            LENGTH:   85 lines

HOLLERIN' CHAMPION GETS NATIONAL RECOGNITION

IN A WAY, it's eerier - or maybe ``earier'' - than that boxing match between Holyfield and Tyson.

Last Tuesday night, Robey Morgan, 82, of Wendell, N.C., received a call from someone who said he was the president of the United States.

The person at the other end of the line asked Morgan if he'd holler something into his ear.

And Morgan complied with the request. He hollered the song ``Amazing Grace'' into the phone.

You may well ask why Bill Clinton would want to hear ``Amazing Grace'' hollered into a phone. Actually, it would be a natural thing to do if you had a hankering for first-class hollering.

Morgan is the country's national champion hollerer, the winner of the annual National Hollerin' Contest, which was held in June at Spivey's Corner, N.C.

The champ said the person who phoned him talked with him for about 15 minutes. During their conversation, Morgan favored the caller with a couple of other hollers: the ``good morning'' and ``good evening'' calls with which country neighbors once used to greet each other.

``He really praised my hollerin','' Morgan said. ``Said he couldn't hardly get over it.''

But on Wednesday last, the president was asked about the phone call to the hollerin' champ and said he didn't make it, according to Julie Green, a White House spokeswoman.

Morgan, however, believes the president did call him. ``No, it wasn't a prank,'' he said. ``I know that was Clinton on the phone.''

So what really happened? I don't know who can sort this out. Maybe special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who has been tryin' to nail Clinton and - unlike Morgan - has had little to shout about.

Morgan is a three-time winner of the national hollerin' championship at Spivey's Corner. He won in 1979 and 1995 as well as this year.

Quick on his feet, Morgan won the 1979 championship by stepping up on the outdoor stage just as rain began to fall. He won over the judges by hollerin' the gospel song ``Showers of Blessing.''

Since winning this year, he has received calls from around the world from people who want to hear him holler.

``Calls from Australia and Japan and wherever,'' he said. He's also scheduled to appear on the David Letterman show July 16.

``I've told Letterman I'd like to do some hollerin' from the top of the World Trade towers or the Empire State Building when I'm in New York,'' he said. ``I thought hollerin' `God Bless America' from up there would be real nice.''

Morgan said he certainly wouldn't want to do his distress call from the Empire State Building. ``It might shake up the whole city,'' he said.

To date, his highest holler point has been the Grandfather Mountain Mile High Swinging Bridge in western North Carolina. He sent the Queen Mother of Great Britain a recording of his performance from there, and she wrote him a nice letter of thanks for it, he said.

``I believe my hollerin' from that bridge carried farther than any I've done,'' he said. ``The hollerin' just echoes off the mountain, you know. Just seems to carry forever.''

Morgan learned to holler after disobeying his father and slipping off to go fishing at a pond near Smyrna, N.C., when he was about 5 years old. He said his daddy went to the pond and hollered for him, but he was afraid to come out of the bushes.

``When I came home, my daddy spanked me real good. He said when he hollered for me, he expected me to holler right back. I sure learned to holler after that.''

He moved to Zebulon, N.C., when he was 10 and refined his talent.

``The boys in town had a club,'' he said. ``We would holler to each other to let the club members know when there was a meeting. One would holler to the next until all the members knew about it clear across town.''

Hollering not only has a proud history, pre-dating the town criers of early England, but also is healthful, Morgan says.

``Good for the lungs . . . strengthens stomach muscles,'' the champion said.

He practices hollering almost every day. But during when his allergies flare, he sometimes has trouble with his volume.

``During the allergy season,'' he said, ``I sometimes don't know whether I'm going to wind up hollerin' or jumping like a frog.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Associated Press

National Hollerin' Chamption Robey Morgan at home in Wendell, N.C.,

with his trophy. KEYWORDS: PROFILE

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu