Lynn Oldshue
ReporterLynn Oldshue is an APR Gulf Coast correspondent. She is from a newspaper family and grew up on a catfish farm in Yazoo City, MS. She always wanted to be a journalist but got a late start after her two boys grew up. Lynn is part of the APR team that won a national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for a documentary on the long-term impact of the BP oil spill. Lynn is also the creator of the blog and Facebook page Our Southern Souls that tells the stories of people across the South. She has published a book of stories from the first six years of Souls. She enjoys wandering, photography, and riding her horse.
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Fans of The Red Clay Strays call them the Strays for short. The band ended 2019 on a hot streak when their song “Good Godly Woman” was picked for the soundtrack of a Stephen King movie. A new booking agent started getting them into music festivals and more shows outside of Mobile. That includes opening for the Rolling Stones. -
A new book out is gathering lots of interest in South Alabama. It’s by a 91-year-old woman who tells the stories of a difficult childhood in Fairhope. APR visits with the writer as she retraces steps from her long life. -
The number of people with sexually transmitted diseases is on the rise in the U.S. Alabama ranks sixth in the nation. The biggest increase is syphilis. That’s a disease the medical community thought was almost eliminated twenty years ago. New data from Alabama Public Health shows the syphilis rates have more than doubled across the state since 2020. Here’s more on the trend and what residents can do about it. And a note to our readers, this story contains content of an adult nature. -
Mardi Gras is in full swing along the Gulf coast. One favorite carnival tradition is called a King Cake. It’s a large pastry shaped like a crown with cinnamon, chocolate, or cream cheese filling inside. It’s usually covered in gold, green, and purple sprinkles. There’s also a Fat Tuesday tradition that whoever finds the small, plastic baby hidden in a slice of king cake is granted good luck. They also have to bring a King Cake to the next gathering. Here’s the story of one Dauphin Island baker and how her Mardi Gras cakes are a family tradition… -
Alabama Public Radio reported last year on the Magnolia Breeze Youth Ensemble. The all-inclusive therapeutic band plays in Mardi Gras parades in the Mobile area. Here’s a follow-up... -
The Muscle Shoals region of Alabama is synonymous with music. Artists ranging from Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, and the Rolling Stones have traveled to the Shoals to create music. APR’s Joe Moody has reported extensively on Fame Studio, but they’re not the only guys in town. There’s also the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. -
2023 marks two decades since the Monsanto Chemical Company settled a lawsuit with residents of Anniston, Alabama. Twenty thousand townspeople blamed illnesses like cancer and birth defects on exposure to chemicals known as PCBs. Monsanto manufactured these products at its plant southeast of town. This isn’t the only example of industrial chemicals allegedly harming Alabama residents. -
It’s more than tourists flocking to Alabama’s beaches during the summer. This is also prime time for endangered sea turtles are crawling ashore on the Gulf Coast and laying hundreds of eggs. Marine biologists say this is the same spot where many of these turtles hatched years ago. -
During the spring and fall, dozens of migrant species of birds briefly land at Ft. Morgan on their journeys north or south. Alabama Audubon hosts an observation station where scientists, conservationists, and the public can observe birds up close. It’s called bird banding. -
May is Women’s Health month. The Mayo Clinic says one issue that female patients often misunderstand is menopause. An estimated six thousand women begin to experience this condition every day.
