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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Having lived approximately half my life in cities and half in rural places, 
my decision to return to the hills and hollers of the Ozarks is informed. 
Nearly all of my urban acquaintances smile when I refer to myself as an 
intentional hillbilly. Now that I have found this, I have something to send 
them:

IN 1960 the Springfield, Missouri, Court of Appeals ruled on a divorce case 
involving the use of the term "hillbilly."  Judge Justin Ruark, in the case 
Moore v. Moore (337 S.W. 2d 781) made the following statement in his decision:

In respect to plaintiff's evidence that Minnie once referred to relatives 
of the plaintiff as hillbillies: We suggest that to refer to a person as a 
"hillbilly," or any other name, for that matter, might or might not be an 
insult, depending upon the meaning intended to be conveyed, the manner of 
utterance, and the place where the words are spoken.  Webster's New 
International Dictionary says that a hillbilly is "a backwoods man or 
mountaineer of the southern United States;-often used contemptuously."  But 
without the added implication or inflection which indicates an intention to 
belittle, we would say that, here in Southern Missouri, the term is often 
given and accepted as a complimentary expression.  An Ozark hillbilly is an 
individual who has learned the real luxury of doing without the entangling 
complications of things which the dependent and over-pressured city dweller 
is required to consider as necessities.  The hillbilly foregoes the hard 
grandeur of high buildings and canyon streets in exchange for wooded hills 
and verdant valleys.  In place of creeping traffic he accepts the rippling 
flow of the wandering stream. He does not hear the snarl of exhaust, the 
raucous braying of horns, and the sharp, strident babble of many tense 
voices.  For him instead is the measured beat of the katydid, the lonesome, 
far-off complaining of the whippoorwill, perhaps even the sound of a 
falling acorn in the infinite peace of the quiet woods.  The hillbilly is 
often not familiar with new models, soirees, and office politics.  But he 
does have the time and surroundings conducive to sober reflection and 
honest thought, the opportunity to get closer to his God.  No, in Southern 
Missouri the appellation "hillbilly" is not generally an insult or an 
indignity; it is an expression of envy.