A Man Called Shirley

About the Book

Shirley Love might have spent his life as an obscure welder, struggling to raise his family in West Virginia, but a performance in church one Sunday changed his life. As Love sang a little-known hymn, a worshipper—a radio station owner—was impressed with the teenager’s voice and invited him to audition as an announcer.

Although reluctant, Love tried out and landed the position. From there, he moved into fledgling television and began to anchor a raucous local event: Saturday Night Wrestlin’. The show, always completely scripted, triggered passions ignited by the demeaning talk, revealing the worst in human emotions. Through it all, Love kept his demeanor, dodging a hail of soft drinks and rotten vegetables hurled by irate fans at the wrestlers.

Love’s popularity thrust him into West Virginia politics, attending National Democratic Conventions as a delegate and gaining a gubernatorial appointment as a state senator—a post to which he was reelected in every subsequent election cycle.

Author Mannix Porterfield chronicles the engaging details of Shirley Love’s life, through the eyes of Love, his family, and his colleagues. Love’s life proves that talent, desire, and energy can propel a shy individual with a provocative name from obscurity to success.

About the Author

Mannix Porterfield has worked for three newspapers, The Post-Herald in both Beckley, West Virginia, and Birmingham, Alabama, and The Register-Herald, also in Beckley. He also worked twenty years as both newsman and night editor for United Press International in Charleston, West Virginia, and he served a two-year hitch in the army, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.