KSMU would have aired the next episode of these Ozarks Hills Friday morning, June 5. Instead, we remember Marideth Sisco through her past stories, music and a few of her many friends.
Mary Alexander was one of those who shared a special friendship with Sisco. She remembers when they first met after Sisco performed at a Springfield-Greene County Library branch, and soon after they became fast friends. They even recorded an album together called Front Porch.
"For this album, Marideth drew some of her narration from her life growing up in Butterfield, Missouri, of the family congregating out on the front porch, sharing stories and songs. We traveled to various places, performing front porch, sharing in song and stories," said Alexander. "The farthest we went was to Dauphin Island.
Alexander recalls a trip she took with her friend to Sisco's hometown of Butterfield to find many of the places in Sisco's early memories gone.
"But what is still there is a magnificent water tower proclaiming Butterfield, and just beyond it is a very large field showcasing the most beautiful purple flowers. It was a splendid display of beauty and pride. After that, it was off to her family gravesite. She showed me where one day she would rest alongside her parents. It was a touching trip for both of us," she said.
But Alexander said the most precious time for both of them was "sitting quietly under the dogwood tree in the evening, holding hands and watching our garden grow."
Sisco graduated from Cassville High School. She spent 20 years as an investigative journalist and environmental reporter for the West Plains Daily Quill, and it was there that she honed her storytelling skills writing the gardening column Cross Patch, where she blended horticultural advice with sharp social commentary, according to her obituary. KSMU listeners benefited from Sisco's storytelling skills, like in this episode of the Ozarks Hills that aired in the summer.
"And whether you're a reflective sort, a gardener or a pagan, or just your wee self in a world of possibilities, it's time to find a cool spot, maybe by the creek. Put a watermelon on ice. Start a tiny fire just big enough for a couple of hot dogs and a few s'mores and celebrate the bounty of the season," said Sisco. "Maybe put a toe in the water, eat a peach, and reflect for just a minute on how incredibly lucky we are to be blessed with these Ozark hills. To live in gardens large and small, where we can grow ourselves as well as our sustenance and consciences, clever enough to create our own world in our thoughts, where we can adopt the belief system we choose and believe whatever the heck we want, whether it's the highest of logic, the depth of history or just downright weird. We're all human. We're all neighbors, and we're all in this tiny lifeboat of a world together."
Jennifer Moore, who once worked for KSMU and is now an editor for WGBH in Boston, knew Sisco much of her life. In fact, she was the subject of one of Sisco's These Ozarks Hills episodes as she prepared to leave for her new job on the East Coast. Sisco remembered when she first met Moore, who was a middle schooler in West Plains.
"Back in the years when I was a journalist, a good 20 years ago and perhaps as much as 30, I happened to be asked to give a talk at a local middle school on career day about my job as a journalist," said Sisco. "Well, I loved my job and everything about it, and I must have waxed eloquently that day about the honor and ethics and the life of a reporter and things like journalistic integrity and how it's one of the very few jobs actually protected by the Constitution. And I certainly mentioned the sheer joy of getting paid for being irrepressibly nosy, not to mention the thrill of tracking down an elusive story or, as Linda Ellerbee put it, the challenge of finding out something you're not supposed to know about so you can run and tell everybody. It's a sobering thought that mere words could land so hard as to leave an indelible mark on some young person and realizing that I had possibly unintentionally persuaded this one to decide that my career was the very thing they were cut out for."
"I'd never heard of a journalist before, but Marideth did not hold back. She talked about reporting from a gruesome crime scene. She talked about several dramatic examples and said how it was important and the coolest job in the world, and I was hooked," said Moore. "Over the years, Marideth became a maternal force in my life and always believed in me and never let me forget it, no matter where I went. There are countless traditions for displaying grief and honoring the dead with a send off, you know, tearing one's clothing or building altars or sending them off into the sea in a flaming ship of glory. But here in the Ozarks, where both Marideth and I have deep roots, we tell stories. We tell stories about our ancestors and our childhoods and the moments and people who taught us and shaped who we have become. And I look forward to telling stories about Marideth because I know she forever shaped mine. So, rest easy, dear Marideth, and thank you. Thank you for everything."
Sisco was a talented musician and songwriter who left the Ozarks for California for a time to pursue a music career, but she returned. She was a member of the Blackberry Winter Band. She found nationwide fame when she had the chance to be a part of the soundtrack for the 2010 film Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell, starring Jennifer Lawrence. Her version of The Missouri Waltz was what viewers heard when the movie started.
Sisco, who had battled heart problems for years, was able to travel to Washington, D.C., in 2023 to be part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She talked to KSMU's Jess Balisle about the experience for an episode of these Ozarks Hills.
I know you just had a birthday. The big 80, right?
Sisco: Yep.
What does this opportunity mean to you at this point in your life — to be able to share Ozarks culture and ways of life like this with a national audience?
Sisco: It's a culmination of a long, long amount of studying and working and singing and being part of the Ozarks culture and having the years of experience.
Sisco bragged about others who performed at the festival, like Mark Bilyeu and Cindy Wolfe.
"Their harmonies were so clear, the musicianship was perfect, and it couldn't have been better. And that was my big moment. I just thought, yeah, if we got people doing this for the Ozarks, then I can, I can get old and move on my way and not have to worry about what's going to become of the future. Because there it and I was just real tickled to see them show their stuff," she said.
Sisco certainly touched many people through her music, her writing, her storytelling and her friendship. Artist Kathryn Fisher described her friend.
The three words I would use are wise, wonderful and witty," she said. "One of the wonderful and wise things about Marideth was that she would respond to a disagreement calmly, with respect and with her characteristic wit. I don't know anyone who could disarm a disagreement with such charm and have everyone laughing in a flash. She will be sorely missed. She was one of a kind. We will miss her always."
If you miss hearing Marideth Sisco's voice and writing, all you have to do is go to ksmu.org and listen to archives of These Ozarks hills.
