Jimmie Hyche, Production Supervisor at Black Warrior Methane for the past 17 years, has been writing and singing songs for over 20 years. He has always dreamed about one of his songs hitting it big in Nashville. But life has many strange and exciting twists as Jimmie found out after he wrote a song inspired by a true story he read on the Internet. That song took him to New York and an appearance on the John Walsh Show.

The Inspiration
"A couple of months ago I read an article about a mother being reunited with a note in a bottle her son had written in 1984 when he was seven-years-old," Jimmie says. "Her son died in a motorcycle accident just days after his 21^st birthday. The bottle and note had floated around the Gulf of Mexico for 19 years was returned to his mother on the fifth anniversary of his death. No one could have written a fictional story that could match this one. The story inspired me to write a song, Who Says Angels Have to Fly? about the incident for the boy's parents."

The Bottle
Roger J. Clay was on a family vacation in Clearwater, Florida in 1984. The then seven-year-old boy and his parents came down from Fairfield, Ohio to visit his aunt for the Christmas holidays. Roger's dad took him fishing for the day on Pier 60 in Clearwater. During their time on the pier, Roger tore a sheet from an elementary school writing tablet and wrote this note, "To whoever finds this letter, please write me a letter and let me know. Roger J. Clay, 890 Linwood Avenue, Fairfield, Ohio 45014." The note was dated 12/27/84. Roger sealed the bottle with black electrical tape and threw it into the Gulf of Mexico.

On the evening of July 4, 2003, Don Smith, 56, was getting ready to take his grandchildren to watch the fireworks at a local marina near Clearwater, Florida. When the clouds started turning dark and lighting began to flash, he walked over to his boat dock to get a better look at the threatening skies. He spotted a bottle floating about 15 feet from his seawall and it appeared to have a note inside. Using a fishing net, Don snatched the bottle and took inside to his family. After reading the note he told his wife Carol, they should contact Roger in Ohio to let him know they had found his note after 19 years in the water. Don got on the Internet and couldn't find Roger J. Clay but found a Roger L. Clay, 46 with the same address. A search for his phone number was not successful. As one of the many ironic twists of this story, Don and Carol retired from Cincinnati, Ohio. Their son, who was visiting them in Florida, lives in Fairfield, Ohio. Being familiar with that area of Ohio, Don called the county public records department and the Fairfield Police Department. The police had the father's phone number but since it was an unlisted number, they couldn't give it to Don.

Later that day, Don wrote a letter telling Roger he had found his note and gave him information so he could get in touch with him if he wished. He then thought it would make a good story for the newspaper and called the St. Petersburg Times. They sent out a photographer and reporter for the story. On July 8, the reporter called Don and told him Roger's parents were divorced but had phone numbers for both of them. That was the good news. The bad news was Roger had been killed in a motorcycle accident on July 10, 1998, just nine days after his 21^st birthday. The reporter also told Don that Roger's birthday was July 1^st. Don was now reluctant to call Roger's parents because of it being so close to his birthday and the anniversary of his death. Don decided to ask his wife Carol what he should do. She told him he should call.

Don called Roger's father first and got an answering machine. He left a message explaining what he had found. He next called Roger's mother, Lisa Ferguson. He asked for Lisa but the lady answering the phone told him she was Barb, Lisa's sister. After Don explained why he was calling, Barb told him she was sure Lisa would want to talk to him and gave him her cell phone number. She also explained Lisa always leaves Ohio around the anniversary of her son's death. Another ironic twist was Lisa was in Seminole, Florida…twenty minutes away from Don Smith. Don called Lisa and told her what he had found. Lisa broke down crying and remembered the exact day Roger had thrown the bottle into the Gulf of Mexico. Don met Lisa later that night to give her the bottle and note. Lisa tearfully talked for hours about Roger's life, how he was studying to be a FBI agent, how he was tragically killed and the hundreds of people who attended his funeral.

After Jimmie Hyche read this story, he says he had to write a song. "It touched something inside of me," recalls Jimmie. "I wrote the song for Roger's parents, not as a commercial song. I called the reporter in St. Petersburg and told her what I had done and asked for an address to mail the CDs. I mailed the song and didn't think too much more about it until I received a phone call from Lisa Ferguson. She was so grateful I had written the song and wanted to know if I could send her more copies. I have my own recording studio behind my house so it was no trouble to make her extra copies."

As the story was printed across the country, Lisa got calls to appear on several national television shows. One of those shows was the John Walsh Show, broadcast nationally from Rockefeller Center in New York. Unbeknownst to Lisa, the producers at the John Walsh Show called Jimmie and asked him to appear on their show as a surprise guest during the interview with Lisa Ferguson and Don Smith. "I had never been to New York," says Jimmie. "I was a little nervous about going but when the producers called a second time and told me to bring my guitar, I was a even more nervous."

New York
Jimmie, his wife Chris and their two children, Matthew, 18, and Lindsey, 14, traveled to New York for the show taping and a couple days of sightseeing. "We were picked up at the airport by the people from the John Walsh Show and went non-stop for the next couple of days," recalls Jimmy. "I went to the television studios in Rockefeller Center to pre-record my song, 'Who Says Angels Have to Fly?' for the show. We went to make-up, wardrobe and finally to the recording studio. The most difficult part was keeping me hid from Lisa since I was a surprise guest. I even got to change clothes in Tom Brokaw's bathroom! The folks at NBC treated us like royalty."

"After lunch my family and I went back to Rockefeller Center for the taping," says Jimmie. "John Walsh was interviewing Lisa Ferguson and Don Smith and John says he heard someone from Alabama wrote a song about the bottle being found. John told her he had a video clip of the song and played it for her. Lisa became very emotional and then John told her I was in the studio. I came out and met Lisa and Don for the first time. It was quite an emotional time. After the show, we all went out sightseeing and I made some new friends."

Jimmie and his family took a double-decker tour bus around Manhattan and later visited the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero. "Times Square at night had to be my favorite," says Jimmie. "My kids said the taxi rides were their favorite part of the trip. I would just call the taxi rides a full throttle adventure."

Maybe as a sign of things to come, Jimmie was stopped as he was leaving the Excelsior Hotel on the Upper West Side to get into his waiting limousine for the ride back to the airport. "I was walking through the lobby carrying my guitar when a couple of women stopped me," explains Jimmie. "They asked if I was famous and before I had time to think told them no, I was just here to be on a television show. Seems that didn't matter, they wanted to take his photo just the same."

Left to right: Don and Carol Smith (Don found the bottle), John Walsh, Lisa and Alvin Ferguson (Lisa is the mother of Roger Clay) and Jimmie Hyche.

The Hyche Family on the set of the John Walsh Show.
Left to right: Matthew, Lindsey, John Walsh, Chris and Jimmie Hyche.