Mockingbird Songs
Page 10
Meantime if you need some meat to feed your ego, I have included a report on online computer visits to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. We now average about 13,000 visits a week (a total of 600,000 page visits since we launched in September). The #2 subject is some character named Nelle Harper Lee and the #8 subject is the book she wrote. I guess that makes you more popular than Bear Bryant, George Wallace, Hank Williams and even Wayne Flynt.
Love,
Wayne and Dartie
18 March ’09
Dearest Wayne:
Please forgive this less than prompt reply, but MY PUBLIC keeps me so busy, I don’t have time for friends.
You see in an instant that this is a lie. The truth is: the less I do, the lazier I get, and now I can hardly move. Something did, though, the other day—I stood straight up. The good fortune of my friend Kevin Howell brought me to my feet: he was an editor at the HarperC—lost his job a month ago. The spectacular news is that he’s got a new job at Penguin Books! He was without work for only 1 month. He celebrated by sending me a yard’s length of boxes of candy! Ya’ll come share it!
MUCH LOVE, NELLE
Dear Nelle,
What great news about Kevin Howell. We thought so often of you when Horton Foote died, knowing of your long and loving friendship. We knew how upset you were. So the good news about Kevin is welcomed by all. Isn’t it strange how bad news spreads from one person to that person’s friends like a giant cloud of dark foreboding. And good news travels just as quickly as a fresh Spring breeze on a bright sunny day. Good news has a Robert Frost quality to it, bad news a Franz Kafka sense of despair.
I wish we could share your chocolate right now, but I am having some minor surgery Tuesday. So, we will try to haul Kathryn Windham down that way later in April. We will also see you on your birthday on April 26 at the Archives. I have been drafted to say a few words about our esteemed friend. If given the entire month to extol your virtues, I told them, I could do you justice. If given only 10 minutes, I am free to make up whatever I choose. No telling what kind of fiction this old historian may concoct.
We think of you often and pray for you unceasingly, as the Bible says. Say hello to Miss Alice for us.
Sincerely,
Dartie and Wayne
28 March ’09
Beloved Prof:
Your letter was a beauty, for which much thanks! One minor thing, though—if you extol my virtues on 26 April, you will be 2 days early. I think our meeting is on the 28th, which is my birthday. At any rate, I’ll take praise whenever I can get it!
It’s strictly Hebrews 13:8 here; a visit from you & my co-conspirator would be most welcome if you are on the way back from the flesh-pots of Biloxi or somewhere.
Much love,
NELLE
April 4, 2009
Dear Great Writer,
Well, if I can forget my wife’s birthday, my grandchildren’s birthday, and my own birthday, I don’t see why I can’t forget your birthday. Besides, I only missed by 2 days. Rather than spend April 26 and 27 in Montgomery, we will drive over on the 28th. Do you need any help blowing out all those candles? Dartie could get on one side, and I could blow from the other side, and we might make Montgomery a seaport!
Wayne & Dartie
April 14, 2009
Dear Nelle,
I celebrated income tax day eve by watching “Gone With the Wind” on Turner Movie Classics. I believe the book was written by one of those “one book” southern writers. Last time I checked, you were outselling her two to one. But then your South is a lot more convincing than hers was. And I like Scout lots better than Scarlett, though her (Scarlett’s) amorality fits lots of southerners I know. Only a writer from Atlanta could fully appreciate the crass materialism of the New South. As my sociologist friend John Shelton Reed has written, “Every time I go to Atlanta, I am reminded what 240,000 Confederate soldiers died to prevent.”
I am writing you during the intermission. I hope the outcome will be better in the second half but fear that our gallant lads will lose again. Damn those venal Yankees! See you soon birthday girl!
Sincerely,
Wayne
16 April ’09
Dear Ones:
See ya in Montgomery on the 28th!
(That is, if I can see!)
It’s strictly Hebrews 13:8 here, so, so long—
Much love,
NELLE
19 April ’09
Dearest Both:
Come on! There are no two people in this world I’d enjoy seeing as much as you!
Wayne, you & the incomparable Dartie mean so much to me, especially now that I’m old & afflicted. Your two merry selves are entities that mean good cheer, wisdom, & much laughter when you appear on the scene. Come soon! Stay long!
Much love,
NELLE
3 May (?)
My Both:
It was an unmitigated pleasure to be in your company. Only one thing the matter: your visit was far too short! You should have spent your every moment entertaining me instead of attending a silly conference.
Of course, nothing here on a steady basis, so I have nothing to report, except that I love you much.
NELLE
Dear Madam Famous Author,
Thanks for allowing us to intrude on your time between the clamoring throngs of visitors trying to have an audience with you. . . .
We seem to never get enough time for conversation, but we were afraid that three days in a row with us might exhaust your patience.
It was also wonderful to see Miss Alice if only for a short time.
We are off Monday to care for the little charmer [Harper Flynt in Seattle] with the silly grin on the other side. Mom and Dad are off to Italy for 10 days. If we survive, we will be down to see you in late May or early June.
Wayne
13 May ’09
My dearest Both:
I am crazy, so I don’t remember if it’s Dartie or Wayne to whom I owe a letter: probably both of you—hence this salutation. My recent readings, if you are even faintly interested, have been centered on C. S. Lewis: I have come back to him in my old age, after decades of neglect, and I am surprised to discover how much I’ve missed his wise and humorous counsel—he was a sweetheart! The latest two Lewis anecdotes I heard were delightful, but I have room for only one: he was asked if he remembered the instructions he received as a boy. “Only two,” he said. “Bend over,” and “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”
They don’t make ’em like him any more. But there’s you, my friend, Wayne!
Much love,
NELLE
10
To Everything a Season
Nelle’s sister Louise died in October 2009 at age ninety-three, not only ending her own sad saga, but also dealing another bitter blow to a family reeling from illness and aging. I have written many letters of consolation, but the ones to Nelle and Alice were among the hardest. Since they were both too infirm to attend Louise’s graveside service, I wrote to them about it. Louise had always wanted to hear “Amazing Grace” played on bagpipes at her funeral. That wasn’t possible, but her great-granddaughter provided a wonderful alternative.
Although Nelle rarely went to Montgomery at this stage in her life, she did attend the fall induction ceremony of the Alabama Academy of Honor, where she could socialize with old friends.
We continued to write to Nelle and Alice and drive to Monroeville to see them. On one visit in 2011, I recommended they read Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Alice ordered it, and the book triggered memories of family history and her own childhood. Although Nelle ceased her correspondence with us, Alice continued writing, and we saw that history fascinated her as thoroughly as fiction did Nelle. The two had lived very different lives. While Nelle enjoyed New York’s Broadway shows and art galleries, Alice had spent her time wandering down back roads in Southwest Alabama with like-minded friends, rescuing letters and papers from deserted plantations, tenant shacks, or aba
ndoned garages, scrutinizing old mills or country stores for records, and sharing local history stories with three generations of family and friends.
The Doy Leale McCall Collection that Alice describes resulted from lifelong efforts by a pioneer Southwest Alabama timber family to discover, buy, and preserve more than a million documents pertaining to the state—Civil War diaries, presidential land grants, descriptions of slave life, and much more—from territorial days into the early twentieth century. The family’s 2011 gift to the University of South Alabama had an estimated value of $3.1 million and was considered at the time to be one of the most important archives of nineteenth-century history preserved by any southern state. Alice had known three generations of McCalls and was eager for me to explore the collection, housed in Mobile. As her letters meticulously recounted South Alabama and family history, I began to wonder if Alice’s mind was not superior to the new million-document archive as a source of local history, and this only months shy of her hundredth birthday.
In June 2011 Nelle and Alice lost another connection to the past, Kathryn Windham, who, like Louise, died at age ninety-three. I sent Alice my newspaper column eulogizing Kathryn.
Alice’s hundredth birthday on September 11, 2011, was, at her instruction, a small affair. I offered a brief tribute to her legal career and knowledge of history and gave her a copy of my memoir Keeping the Faith, which had been published weeks earlier and for which Nelle had written a blurb.
The last letter in this chapter also turned out to be my last letter to Nelle. It had been some time since she was able to respond, so although we would visit her in Monroeville again many times before her death, about a year later, I had to face the fact that our correspondence, so precious to me for so long, was over.
October 21, 2009
Dear Nelle,
We enjoyed seeing you, both in Monroeville and Montgomery. We tried not to monopolize your time in the capitol, though it was hard. Hopefully we will see you in Eufaula this Sunday.
We both grieve over Louise’s passing. She was a dear friend we loved long before we knew you. I will always remember her family stories about Finch’s Landing, about the eccentrics in Eufaula, about a local Baptist preacher who apparently murdered not one wife, but two.
As you may know already, she was a real force for social justice in the town. At a critical moment, the mayor appointed her to a committee on public education designed to make integrated schools so successful all students would want to attend. Her reputation for dignity and integrity served the cause well.
Of course, I agree with your father that this parting is for a season only. We will one day have a great reunion punctuated, I hope, by a splendid bagpiper, playing “Amazing Grace.” For the time being, we must settle for a fiddle version, which will be fine.
I once took a philosophy of religion course in order to study the problem of suffering. Predictably, we reached no answers better than Job’s: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.”
So, I turn instead to my favorite Appalachian novel, Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, for comfort. He puts these profound words in the mind of his goat woman/herb doctor: “That’s just pain. It goes eventually. And when it’s gone, there’s no lasting memory, not the worst of it anyway. It fades. Our minds aren’t made to hold on to the particulars of pain the way we do bliss. It’s a gift God gives us, a sign of His care for us.”
Wayne
October 29, 2009
Dear Alice and Nelle,
The memorial service for Louise was wonderful. It was a bright, crisp day overlooking the Chattahoochee River, with some 75–100 of her friends and relatives present. Her sons, grandchildren, and great grandchildren were there. Although there was no bagpiper, I am sure Louise was quite content with her great granddaughter playing “Amazing Grace” on the fiddle. The little girl was wonderful: poised, smiling, intense, and very proud of herself. Louise, I am certain, was smiling all through the song.
Rev. Joe Lisenby, who eulogized her, knew her well and did her justice. He mentioned her concern for fairness and justice, her involvement in committees for improved race relations and better funded schools in Eufaula. He told stories about her that were both humorous and insightful. Dr. Al Harbour mentioned his relationship with you through the West Florida–South Alabama Methodist Conference and the Finch family. The liturgy was appropriate and simple, as she would prefer.
Afterwards, Gwin Conner invited us to join the family at her house to talk about Louise, Alice, Nelle, and family. That too would have delighted her. Ed and Hank told stories and shared memories.
Although you were missed, you did the better thing by spending lots of quality time having fun in better days. As for Louise, she has left the land of shadows for the realm of light, she now knows as she is known, and I rejoice for her liberation.
Sincerely,
Wayne and Dartie Flynt
11–11–09
Dear Wayne and Dartie:
Thank you for your lovely letters to Nelle Harper and me both before and after the memorial service for Louise. We were especially grateful to view the service through the eyes of a non-member of the family.
The little girl whom you describe as very proud of herself as she filled in the spot for the not available bagpiper was 11 year old Sara Byers, the great-granddaughter of Louise. Since she was five years old Sara has played violin with the Jacksonville Junior Symphony Orchestra, the youngest member ever to that date. She is being educated in the public schools of Jacksonville as a gifted child.
I do not have to tell you how proud we are of Sara and with what interest we watch her progress. It may amuse you to know that Sara is half-Scottish, her father being a native of Scotland but now a naturalized American citizen and an educator.
Nelle Harper and I have been recalling some of the great trips we made with Louise. We three sisters really enjoyed our own company. Once we heard that a friend described us as follows: “They laugh a lot; they enjoy their own company; they can’t agree on a single thing, not even the temperature.”
I hope your travels bring you in this direction soon. Your visits are like a shot of B-12 to Nelle.
God Bless,
Alice
March 2, 2011
Dr. J. Wayne Flynt
1224 Penny Lane
Auburn, AL. 36830
Dear Wayne,
I am about half-way through “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” and I am enjoying it very much—no trouble with the dialect.
I had never heard of Zora Neale Hurston nor any of her writings. I could not see how that would happen. Then I saw 1937 was the year of its publication and realized that at the time I was making the move from Monroeville to Birmingham and the transition had cut my reading time for a period of time.
Reading this book caused me to look back into the history of the family. Two of my great-great grandfathers came to Monroe County in its early years, one in 1823 and the other a few years later. Each of them became the owners of considerable acreage and common sense should tell me that they needed help to cultivate the cotton fields and to cut down trees for sawmilling. But I always thought my forbearers [sic] too poor to afford slaves. In recent years I have run across some old tax assessment sheets. One of them shows Dr. R. Maiben 39 slaves; for T. H. Williams a longer list of names but no total.
I have no idea of knowing what became of the people after 1863, but I strongly expect they took the surnames of their former owners and possibly actually never left. I am basing this on the fact that those names are prevalent among the black people living in that same area of Monroe County today. When I was a small child visiting my Grandmother Finch, I happily played with Fanny Lee Penn, my own age, and the only child in the neighborhood. She was named for my mother who was Frances Lee.
My Grandfather Finch actually owned a slave, but he probably never knew it. He was a young child living in Virginia. His Grandmother died in Alabama and under the terms of her will, each of her three grandchildren was to receiv
e one slave. Minors could not under the law hold title to personal property and then came Emancipation.
One of my sitters, a tall black lady probably in her ’70’s has just told me rather proudly that her niece and three of her friends are now reading my book (Their Eyes Were Watching God).
It was great to visit with you and Dartie even though it was brief. Hope it won’t be too long before your speaking engagements bring you this way again.
Devotedly,
Alice
April 19, 2011
Dear Nelle,
You are now officially inducted into the Fellowship of Southern Writers with all the privileges and rights pertaining thereto (there are NO privileges and rights except all those great writers were ecstatic to have the most famous of all Southern writers in their ranks). We met lots of people whose writing I enjoy: Josephine Humphreys, Wendell Berry, Natasha Trethewey, Bobbie Ann Mason, Ernest Gaines, Charles Frazier. Unfortunately, many of the best members are dead now: Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Reynolds Price, Horton Foote, Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren, Peter Taylor, Andrew Lytle.
We will bring your award down on your birthday. We are having it framed to add to all your presidential citations.
Sincerely,
Wayne and Dartie
5–1–11
Dear Wayne,
Thank you so much for the copy of your remarks on the occasion of Nelle Harper’s election to the Fellowship of Southern Writers. You are most generous in your assessment of the Lee Family as readers. If Louise were with us, she would also express her appreciation. My father read to me even after I learned to read, and he read to his grandsons so they would become readers.