Shelby Foote, the Southern historian best remembered for his wise and empathetic tales that animated Ken Burns’ landmark PBS series on the Civil War, died on Monday night at age 88.

Foote spoke with me by telephone from his home in Memphis in 1991, when I was writing a story on the controversy over Confederate symbols in public places. You know how I was able to reach him? His number was listed in the Memphis phone book; I called and he picked up on the first ring.

“Have you ever thought about getting an unlisted number?” I asked.

“Oh, I think about it, sometimes,” he replied in his soft drawl. I could almost see him scratching his snowy beard as he said it.

I think Foote became a media darling, beloved by the public, primarily because of his honesty — together with his understanding of people’s flaws, and his ability to put these flaws in their proper context.

When I asked him what he thought about calls to topple a famous statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis, Foote said: “Forrest was known throughout the South for his kindness to slaves… Lincoln wanted to send blacks back to Africa; should we take his statue down, too?”

Forrest, a Confederate general, was recruited after the war to be the first leader of the Ku Klux Klan. He’s buried at Forrest Park, where the statue stands. And the controversy rages even today; here’s a recent piece in the Memphis Flyer.