Emory Cunningham

Emory Cunningham often said the secret of his success was treating readers like neighbors.

When he died in January of this year, more than two million "neighbors" each month read Southern Living, the unique magazine Cunningham conceived and developed. Since its inception in 1966, Southern Living has reflected Cunningham’s love of his region, his belief in its potential, and his devotion to its natural beauty.

The son of a farmer and a teacher, Cunningham was raised on a farm northwest of Birmingham. After serving as a navy pilot in World War II and receiving an agricultural degree from Auburn University, he joined the sales staff of Progressive Farmer, the leading farm magazine in the South. He broke one sales record after another, rose through the ranks, and eventually became the magazine’s publisher.

But he knew there was more to the South than its rural landscape. It was a land of thriving business districts and sophisticated workers, a land of tidy suburban houses bordered by azaleas that blazed in the spring. He knew its people loved good times and good food and that they saved and shared recipes and stories with equal enthusiasm. Cunningham was determined to capture this New South spirit in a magazine and present it to the nation.

Southern Living was a publishing phenomenon. On its tenth anniversary, the United States Magazine Publishers named Cunningham publisher of the year. His company, Southern Progress, became the world’s largest regional publisher. "To call Emory Cunningham merely the most successful publisher of regional magazines in the United States is to slight a shining career," said Reginald Brack Jr., the president of Time’s magazine group when it purchased Southern Progress. Cunningham became a vice president for Time Inc.

Devoted to his community, state, and profession, Cunningham served on countless boards and held offices in numerous organizations. He was a great friend to higher education in Alabama. A member of the Auburn Board of Trustees, he was also a member of the President’s Cabinet at The University of Alabama. A devoted ecologist before it became fashionable, he traveled the world to study agricultural practices. The Southern Progress headquarters in Birmingham, built under his direction, earned high marks for its striking design and the way it showcases the natural environment.

"My father was a modern-day Southern gentleman," David Cunningham wrote. "He looked at the South and his Southern heritage with a positive light. He was as comfortable in a boardroom as he was on a stream bank. He was a naturalist who rarely missed the symphony. He cherished his family, but loved all people. He could talk but would rather listen. He loved history but didn’t dwell on the past.

"His vision looked forward, forward to a bright and shining Southern future."