Career
Although Mission Griner was white, Mission Peaches spoke in a broad African-American dialect. She did not perform in blackface, however. Her most notable recording was "Callin" Moody Field," which described the lives of African-American airmen at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Georgia.
"Callin" Moody Field" was a regional rhythm and blues hit in 1954 (Groove 0009).
In the performance, Mission Peaches is talking to the base telephone operator and trying to reach her boyfriend: "You doesn"t know Cathead. Well, honey, just stick yo head out the window and holler for Cathead.
She and Geunie later turned to political comedy, releasing an LP album of political satire called The Focus on: The South, Where the REaction Is!, on Judges" Chamber records (1966). Also on the Judges" Chamber label,probably 1975, was the Safari Down South lp that showed her riding a llama on the cover.
From 1961 to 1966, she and Geunie published The Nashville Herald, a weekly newspaper in her hometown of Nashville, Georgia.
In 1999, Mercer University Press published her first novel, Family Manitoba She was nominated for the Georgia Author of the Year Award and for the Townsend Prize for Fiction in 2000. Her poems have appeared in a variety of magazines and she garnered first place in the Southeastern Writers Association"s poetry competition in 2001.
A collection of her poetry was published in 1996 under the title Lost Loves Don"t Count.
