I found this story in a past issue of Turkey Call magazine about Neil Cost, the costom box call maker, and thought it was really neat
"A Date With the fat Lady"
By Scott Branton
Every date is special, particularly in the view of a spring turkey hunter.
Like romantic, youthful dating, my own turkey hunting commenced at 16 when I took a jake on opening morning of the 1973 spring turkey season in Mississippi. I fell in love with the sport, started reading everything I could find related to it and talked with anyone who would talk turkey.Back then, there were reletivly few turkey hunters, still, one spring season followed another, and with each passing year, the number of hunters who identified themselves as turkey hunters increased. Along the way, some two and a half decades after taking my first turkey, I met Neil"gobbler"Cost of South Carolina some of the most prolific callmakers of our time.
When I visited Neil in August of 1997, he was tuning and toning a block of butternut wood. The caller had not lid, did ot bear any outer markings his calls are known for and, most noticably, had a knot on it's left soundboard. I had seen probably 50 Neil Cost boat paddle callers and had never seen any with even a semblance of a knot untill the day I met him. He informed me that tis would be the last of the boat paddle callers he would ever make.
Neil continued to tune and tone his last boat paddle caller through the end of 2000. In the interim, he dubbed it "The Fat Lady," after the opera legend immortalized in sportes lore as a proverbial source of hope, as in "it ain't over till the fat lady sings."
When I visited Neil in January of 2001, his phisician had put him on oxygen. Years of inhaling cigarette somke, saw dust and dust generated from slate he sanded to make slate turkey callers had taken their toll.having served as a medic in World War II adn the Korean War, Neil was well aware that after 77 years of living and 45 years of doing what he loved most-making turkey callers-his days in the shop were drawing to a close. He asked my help with two endeavors. First, he wanted me ot help him sell off his personal turkey caller collection. Second, he wanted me to help him find someoe capable of drawing an operatic fat lady on the lid of his last caller. While more than willing to help my friend with the first of his requests, the second request was more sobering.
Attempting to find an artist capable of making a one time drawing on a once-in-a-lifetime turkey caller made my a living ledgend geave rise to more than a small measure of anxiety.
I took care of the second request first. Upon returning home tom Starkevill Miss.. I called Eric Younge,who promply drew three impressions of a singing fat lady and sent tehm to Neil, who selected oneof the srawings and requested minor modefications. Neil also sent Eric a cedar caller lid to test its suitability for drawing and weather or not the ink would run or leach. Eric Drew the fat lady on the proof lid and sent it back to Neil,who deemed it acceptable. With that, Eric drew a fat lady on the Fat Lady.
I decided to utilize the internet auction site ebay to sell Neil's peronal callers. Toward the end of January 2001, we put the first caller-a call tht had been used by celebrity fisherman Roland Martin in the spring of 1994- in the auction block. the last caller auctioned was Neil's Fat Lady
Neil proveded few instructions or directions pertaining to the aucioning of his Fat Lady, and I scheduled bidding to open Friday, March 9, and to close the Sunday evening after the opening weekend of Mississippi's spring turkey season- a full 10 days that would give the bidding time to build and me two mornings to field Cost's final call. bidding opened at $100 on March 9, the reserve ws met by tuesday and the following saturday morning, the day before teh selling date, the bid stood at $9,200.

Center Stage
On opening morning of the turkey season, I awoke at 8:30 a.m. The night before , my family and I arrived from florida after an Osceola hunt one Seminole Reservation adjoining the Big Cypress Preserve and three days of Disney World. I never heard the 4:00 a.m. alarm.
I waited till my five year old son Colter awoke, and we sailed afield about 10:00 a.m. Upon arriving at our lease, we spied three gobblers and two hens picking clover. we made our approachand just as we positioned ourselves the landowner of some adjacent property drove up to his cattle feeder. Like Pavlov's dog's, cattle came running to the feeder as he honked his horn. Even the Fat Lady's seductionwas not sufficientto bring the turkeys back.
Colter adn truged back to our truck adn drove hometo plan a stategy and grab a sandwitch. At 4pm, we returned-a quick peek through our binoculars showed that the turkeys had too. We again positioned ourselves and 15 minutes later, we let Neil's Fat Lady sing-two clucks followed by four yelps. I set the caller on the ground.
At 90 yards, the heads of all five birds went up like parascopes, and just as quickly, they began to make their way twards Colter and me. The second gobbler appeared to have the thickest beard. the lead bird closed the distance between us to 35 yards, but my bead settled on the wattles of the second tom. I squeezed the trigger of the 10 guage, and the gobbler fell.
The remaining birds scattered quickly. I grabbed the Fat Lady even as Colter ran to our trophy, a good three year old that weighed 20 pounds and had a 10 1/2 in beard with 1 inch spurs. For Colter adn me, it could nothave been a more special gobbler -special because it was the first gobbler that I had taken with him by my side. Neil's Fat Lady caller added anextra measure of unqueness to our hunt.
The following day at 4:45 p.m., Niel cost's Fat Ladythe last boat paddle caller he made for sale brought the highest bid yet achieved by a turkey caller sold on ebay for $11,000. Earl Mickel of beach lake, Pa., a notedturkey call collector, author adn my friend, placed the winning bid.
In a recentletter Earl wrote, "The Fat Lady is content with a special place on my Neil Cost Shelf."

I thought that story was really neat.