To outsiders, it may seem paradoxical—not to say schizophrenic—that Nashville prides itself equally on the country culture of the Grand Ole Opry and such blue-blooded events as the Iroquois Steeplechase. But insiders understand that these contrasting instincts, playing in counterpoint, are what give the place its tone. And no one played this tone with more perfect pitch than Herbert Fox.
This was a man who founded the society magazine Nfocus, yet whose favorite job of all time was as head writer for the TV cornpone series Hee Haw. He wrote the coffee table book chronicling 25 years of the Swan Ball and the scripts for a sitcom called I-40 Paradise. He was a regular at soirees like the Symphony Ball, yet his most beloved charity was the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald. In the 1970s, he bought and restored a 13th century chateau in France's Loire Valley; he lived out his life in modest quarters in the Blackstone Apartments. With his death Monday of heart failure, he leaves a gap on the guest lists of Nashville's most prominent hostesses and a hole in the city's heart.
Herbert Fox was a true son of Nashville, the child of Ladye Elizabeth Inman and Herbert Fox Sr., a graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University. He subsequently edited the legal and business publication The Nashville Record and reported for the Nashville Banner. Herbert remembered when the Belle Meade Mansion was just "some old house we used to play in." He recalled lighting torches at the city's first airfield so that his father—a pioneer aviator—could land his canvas-winged plane. He laughed about sorting mail "like a trained chimpanzee" at the downtown post office during Christmas vacations in the 1940s.
Herbert was also a citizen of the world. As a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, he flew 100 night bombing missions in Korea. He navigated more peacefully around the globe (twice) as the PR director for the National Cotton Council, staging photo shoots in such exotic locales as Egypt and Morocco featuring such high fashion models as Suzy Parker and Jean Shrimpton, Verushka and Twiggy. He knew photographer Richard Avedon well enough to call him "Dick" and Ali McGraw before and after she became a star.
In a tribute written on the occasion of Herbert's receipt of the Abbey Leix Award from the O'More College of Design in 2002, his longtime friend and photographer, Susan Adcock, tells the story of "someone who once planned a dinner party and, when faced with the question of who would sit next to Princess Margaret, answered with the words: 'Herbert Fox.' "
Herbert came home to Nashville because his best friends were here. With a little help from those friends, he started Nfocus in 1993. It was a perfect fit for the man who knew everyone who was anyone. He became an icon of the social circuit, breaststroking through a crowd, head high, murmuring names into his tape recorder.
But because I don't usually tread the party path that is the Nfocus milieu, I first encountered Herbert as a soft and very Southern voice on my answering machine. "Hon', this is Herbert. I'm callin' to see if you'll do a storah for me. Gloria Houghland is havin' a facelift, and Nfocus is gonna cuvah it. Darlin', I know ya write about architecture and design. Think of this as the design of a face. Hope ya can do it. You're a sweetheart. Bye."
Having never been called a "sweetheart" by an editor before—much less asked to do a "storah" about the adaptive reuse of the human face—I said yes. And I never regretted it. What's not to like—make that love—about an editor who will pay you to interview a Vietnamese potbellied pig?
I grew to look forward to Herbert's monthly assignments, to his drawl on my voice mail, to his emails signed "love and kisses." And when he sold the magazine in 2004 to City Press Publishing and was my editor no more, I'd occasionally give him a call, just to hear his voice, just to listen to him laugh.
Herbert was still laughing last week when I made the final of those calls, despite the perilous state of his heart, despite chemo treatments that had left him severely weakened. And he signed off with the usual "love and kisses." Love and kisses to you too, hon', one more time.
Visitation will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 21 at the Cheek House, First Presbyterian Church on Franklin Road. Memorial service will follow at 3 p.m. The family requests that any memorial contributions be sent to the Elephant Sanctuary, P.O. Box 393, Hohenwald, TN 38462.
