Who We Are
Magnolia & Moonshine’s pages are packed with a patchwork of authentic, entertaining, engaging and distinctly Southern stories. They forge and deepen connections by highlighting both everyday and ephemeral beauty, honoring and preserving traditions, promoting our outdoor abundance and celebrating our region’s culture in all its forms. Stitched through this wide range of story subjects is the common thread of a shared purpose: to evoke the soul and spirit of the South and add a little of its grace to modern life.
Behind the magazine’s stories and photos is our family led team based in Alabama. Our founders are a mother, Lynne Frakes, and her daughters, sisters Katie Waldrep and Leslie Anne Jones. Magnolia & Moonshine developed organically from their deep roots set in Southern soil and an equally deep love of our region. The magazine’s most constant muse is Lynne’s mother and the sisters’ grandmother, Janie, whose passion for finding and sharing her vision of beauty — the South seen through her spiritual and spirited lens — inspired its formation and guides us still today.
Katie Waldrep
Publisher
Lynne Frakes
Founder, Pictured with her daughters
Leslie Anne Jones
Contributor & Editor
Cara D. Clark
Executive Editor, Magnolia & Moonshine Magazine
Cara D. Clark serves as Executive Editor of Magnolia & Moonshine Magazine, guiding the editorial vision and storytelling that celebrates Southern culture’s richness, resilience, and charm. With more than 20 years of experience in journalism, content creation, and media strategy, Cara brings a deep passion for authentic storytelling and a keen editorial eye to every page.
At the publication's helm, she curates compelling features that highlight the people, places, and traditions that define the South. Cara’s editorial journey has included leadership roles at Birmingham Business Journal, communications direction for national brands like B.A.S.S., and bylines in a range of prestigious publications nationwide. She also brings the rare perspective of having served as an embedded journalist with U.S. troops in Afghanistan—an experience that deepened her commitment to powerful, human-centered storytelling.
An Auburn University alum with a degree in Journalism and English, Cara blends professionalism with heart. Away from the editing desk, she’s most at home outdoors — riding horses, adventuring with her sporting dogs, traveling, or enjoying the quiet beauty of Southern landscapes that often inspire her stories.
What We Do
We are storytellers. With every picture and word, Magnolia & Moonshine seeks to paint a vivid portrait of the South, an image that opens others’ eyes to all its charms as well as its complexities. It’s a big task; the South is a big place. But we’re guided by a vision that makes our publication stand out in a crowded field of regional magazines.
We’re rooted in tradition but not stuck in the past. We’re serious about sophistication and grace but never stuffy. Our stories are set in the South’s big cities, small towns and every place in between. They’re down dirt roads, at a neighborhood peanut boil, on the downtown square, alongside a riverbank, in the glitzy new boutique, on the porch of a historic inn and amid fields and forests.
But our focus is never solely on a story’s “where;” it’s on the “who,” from ordinary folks doing meaningful things to larger-than-life characters who embody the personality of this place we call home.
Why We Do It
We live in a hectic, striving, fast-paced world. Our stories are an invitation to slow down and sit a spell on your porch. They stir recollections and strengthen pride of place, while also introducing you to interesting people, unique places to discover, fresh tastes to sample, plus entertaining, style and decor tips that will enhance your life.
And our stories don’t stop there. By encouraging you to seek out and savor the South, they create a circle of storytelling, inspiring you to look within and look around to uncover and create your own story.