by Jan Karon
Kenny McGuire: A friend of Dooley’s who lives on a farm near Meadowgate.
Gene Bolick: Husband of the famed originator of the Orange Marmalade Cake.
Father Douglas, Father Lewis, Father Randall: Possible contenders for fill-ins when Father Tim spends his enforced sabbatical in Ireland.
Mitford Pets
While our pets are just like people to us, I chose, nonetheless, to give them a separate category. So, bear with me here.
Buckwheat, Bowser, Baudelaire, Bodacious, and Bonemeal are dogs of various breeds who live at Meadowgate Farm. Goosedown
Owen is a Meadowgate horse who tosses Dooley in the pig slop.
Flopsy and Mopsy are of the genus Sylvilagus, as is Jack.
Barnabas and Violet, of course, are two very prominent stars in the series. As you may already know, Barnabas is a mixed-breed dog as big as a Buick (predominantly Bouvier in appearance) who adopted Father Tim early on, and has been the rector’s boon companion ever since. Named for the good sort who accompanied St. Paul on his first missionary journey, Barnabas’s rambunctious behavior is controlled only by the loud proclamation of Scripture.
While Barnabas is known by everyone locally, Violet has an international profile. Indeed, her mistress, Cynthia Coppersmith, has written and illustrated a veritable carload of award-winning books about Violet who, in the books at least, does everything from play the piano to have kittens, go to school, and travel through France.
A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW
Edith Mallory: Resides at Clear Day; everlastingly attempts to seduce the rector.
Pat Mallory: Edith’s husband who died while Father Tim was in Sligo.
Father Appel: Emma reminds Father Tim that Father Appel got married when he was sixty-five, for heaven’s sake, right after his Social Security kicked in.
Buck Leeper: Job Superintendent at Hope House.
Fane Leeper: Buck’s father, so called because a preacher once said he was the most profane man he’d ever met.
Leonard Bostic: Attends a town council meeting with the mayor.
Linder Hayes: Mitford attorney who complains to the town meeting about Miss Rose directing traffic around the monument.
Ernestine Ivory: She feels Miss Rose does “a real good job” of directing traffic.
Ed Coffey: Edith Mallory’s driver, who’s seen around town in a black Lincoln “the size of a condominium.”
Josiah Baxter: Miss Sadie Baxter’s deceased father.
Magdolen: Edith Mallory’s cook who is famous for her spoonbread.
Tad Sherrill: Tad attends Edith’s dinner party with Ron Malcolm.
Winona Presley: Attends Edith’s dinner party/committee meeting.
Ed Malcolm: Ron Malcolm’s son who comes from Colorado to work on the Hope House project.
Avette Harris: Mitford’s local library head.
Bishop Slade: Once said that Father Tim was “Kind like his mother! Patient like his mother! Easygoing like his mother!”
Helen Boatwright: Works with Cynthia’s publishing company in New York.
Erin Donovan: Hosted a tea in Ireland, where Father Tim met several distant relatives.
Meg Patrick: Father Tim’s Irish cousin?
Miss Pruitt: Presbyterian Sunday School supervisor.
Aunt Lily: Father Tim’s aunt; one of her progeny was killed in a train accident, the other vanished.
Aunt Martha: Father Tim’s aunt, who married a man thirty years her senior.
Aunt Peg: Father Tim’s spinster aunt, who, immediately after college, had her linens monogrammed with her own initials, declaring she would never marry.
Amy Larkin: Young daughter of Margaret Ann Larkin.
Susan Hathaway: Bishop Cullen’s old flame.
Peehead Wilson: At Christmas, Dooley drew Buster’s name at school, but swapped it with Peehead Wilson for Jenny’s name.
James McNeely: Cynthia’s editor and friend.
Miss Addison: Lives down the hall from Cynthia during Cynthia’s winter sojourn in New York.
Patty Franklin:TOMMY NOLES LOVES PATTY FRANKLIN. Chalking this inscription on the cafeteria door was an act that nearly cost Timothy Kavanagh his life at the hands of the school principal—not to mention Patty Franklin.
Miz Cranford: Mule Skinner said Miz Cranford went to visit her daughter and asked Coot Hendrick to “watch” her house. Coot thought she asked him to “wash” it. Well, he did. Said he borrowed every ladder he could get his hands on.
Mack Stroupe: Proprietor of the hot dog stand next to Lew Boyd’s gas station.
Miss Pearson: Keeps the secret that Dooley Barlowe was going to sing a solo with the full force of the Mitford School Mixed Chorus behind him.
Barney Adams: Evie Adams’s deceased husband. The consequent yard sale of his clothing and personal items is where Mule Skinner bought a salmon-colored sport coat.
John Brewster: Director, Wesley Children’s Hospital.
Gillian Murphy: Nine-year-old patient at the Children’s Hospital.
Nurse Moody: Nurse who put ribbons in Gillian Murphy’s hair.
Great-grandfather Michael, Glynis Flanagan, Lorna, Fergus, Sybil,
Tyrone, Cormac, Lisbeth, Letty Noonan, Matthew, Stephen,
Little Betty, Katie Crain, Gillian Elmurray, Reagan, Brian,
Kevin, Eric, Inis, Deidre Connors, Allie, Meg, Nolle,
Anthony, Stephen, Mary, Arthur, Allen, Asey, Abigail, and Daphne…a few of the names mentioned by Meg Patrick as Kavanagh relatives.
Riley Kavanagh: Father Tim’s Irish cousin in Massachusetts. Emil Kettner: Owns the construction company doing the five-million-dollar Hope House project.
Nurses Phillips, and Jennings: Mitford Hospital staff.
Dr. Hadleigh: Neurosurgeon at Wesley Hospital.
Michelangelo Francesca: Artist from Italy who paints the ballroom ceiling at Fernbank.
Leonardo Francesca: Michelangelo’s son, also an artist.
Louise Appleshaw: Her name enters the conversation when Father Tim and Cynthia discuss a tutor for Dooley.
Roberto: Leonardo Francesca’s grandson.
Pastor Trollinger: Local Methodist minister.
Dr. Browning: Local Presbyterian minister.
Mitford Pets
Palestrina: Miss Addison’s feline who entertained Violet at dinner on several occasions.
Barkless: Homeless Hobbes’s little brown-and-white spotted dog; mute.
THESE HIGH, GREEN HILLS
Angie Burton: Seven years old; suffered from a ruptured appendix and septic shock, and later died.
Sophia Burton: Angie Burton’s mother.
Liza Burton: Angie Burton’s sister.
Charlie Tucker: “If you could knock th’ Baptists out of this deal,” said Charlie Tucker at the All-Church Thanksgiving Feast, “we’d have somethin’ left to go in these baskets. Baptists eat like they’re bein’ raptured before dark.”
Abner Hickman: Announces a showy sunset at the rock wall, and the cleanup crew at Lord’s Chapel piles into vans to witness it.
Lacey Turner: A young girl from the Creek community, later to be called “Lace.”
Adele Lynwood: A new addition to Mitford’s Police Department.
Lida Willis: The stern, young personnel director at Hope House.
Bill Sprouse: The new preacher at First Baptist.
Rachel Sprouse: Bill Sprouse’s wife.
Bailey Coffey: One of the regulars at Lew Boyd’s Esso.
Harvey Upton: Dooley and Harvey crashed into each other while sledding.
Dr. Richard Fleming: Headmaster at Dooley’s prep school.
Lank Pitts: Lank Pitts drove a pickup load of rotted manure into town and parked it in front of Dora Pugh’s hardware, where he sold it by the pound in garbage bags.
Larry Johnson: Lord’s Chapel Youth Group leader.
Father Hanes: Installed a fireplace in the study of the rectory long before Father Tim moved in.
Bo Derbin: A Youth Group member with a surging, but no
netheless repressed, attraction to Lila Shuford.
Lila Shuford, Lee Lookabill, Luke Burnett, Clarence Austin, and Henry Morgan: Members of the Youth Group.
Phyllis Pringle: Was in Cynthia’s girls’ club when they all learned to do something boys did. Phyllis learned to shoot marbles, Alice Jacobs took up the slingshot, and Cynthia learned to whistle.
Anita Jarvis: Father Tim’s seventh grade teacher.
Justine Ivory: As a boy, Father Tim wanted to hold her hand while standing by the blind trout pool, but didn’t have the guts.
Russell Lowell: Cynthia fell in love with him in fifth grade.
Matthew Kavanagh: Father Tim’s father, an attorney in Holly Springs.
Miss Phillips: Cynthia’s fourth grade teacher.
Kaitlin and Kirsten (Sissy and Sassy): Puny’s twin girls.
Widder Fox: To avoid her drunken father, Lacey Turner ran to the widow’s house.
Dave: Computer technician.
Vince Barnhardt: Vince and his wife, Susan, give Dooley a ride home from school.
Joseph Barnhardt: The Barnhardts’ son.
Cate Turner: Lacey Turner’s father.
Slap Jones: Drives Homeless to town to pick up what the grocery store throws out; also ferries him around to dumpsters. Scott Murphy: New chaplain at Hope House.
Granma and Granpa Murphy: Scott Murphy’s grandparents, who were killed in an automobile accident.
Granma and Granpa Lewis: Scott Murphy’s maternal grandparents. Granpa Lewis was killed in the accident, also. Granma Lewis was left in a coma.
Nurse Gilbert: Mitford Hospital nurse. Dr. Cornell Wyatt: Flies to Mitford with his burn nurse to assess Pauline Barlowe’s injuries.
Lewis Cromwell: An attorney with Miss Sadie’s Wesley law firm, Cromwell, Cromwell and Lessing.
Charles Hartley: Owner of Hartley’s Monument Company in Holding.
Doug Wyeth: A social worker in Wesley.
Lester Marshall: Pauline Barlowe lived with him.
Harley Welch: Lives in a trailer in the Creek community; a caring, albeit unofficial guardian of Lacey Turner.
Granny Sykes: Granny and Lacey are the only ones who use the steep trail to Harley Welch’s house.
Mitford Pets
Sparky: Bill Sprouse’s dog; looks like a tumbleweed on a leash.
Snickers: Emma’s brown poodle.
Alexander: A cat belonging to Miss Phillips, one of Cynthia’s early school teachers, who named him Alexander the Great.
Luke and Lizzie: Scott Murphy’s two Jack Russells.
OUT TO CANAAN
Minnie Lomax: Manager, Irish Woolen Shop.
Georgia Moore: Attended the Primrose Tea at the rectory. According to Cynthia, “She opened every cabinet door in the kitchen. She said she was looking for a water glass, when I know for a fact she was seeing if the dishes were stacked to her liking.”
Dot Hamby: Proprietor of The Shoe Barn.
Helen Huffman: Owner of Happy Endings Bookstore. Junior Watson: A notorious race driver for whom Harley Welch had been Crew Chief.
Lucy Stroupe: Mack Stroupe’s wife, more’s the pity.
Rhody Davis: Pauline Barlowe’s mother’s second cousin; absconded with the young Jessie Barlowe.
Lila Turner: Lace Turner’s mother.
Father Henry Townsend: Rector at Lord’s Chapel prior to Father Tim.
Blake Eddistoe: Hal Owen’s vet assistant at Meadowgate.
Mike Jones: Rector of a mountain church, who’s said to look forward to a retirement of “cruising and fishing in the Caribbean.”
Buddy Benfield: Gave a closing prayer at Lord’s Chapel.
Ruth Wallace, Beth Lawrence, Helen Nelson, and Marge Beatty: On Fancy Skinner’s appointment book for everything from acrylic nails to a perm.
Ingrid Swenson: With Miami Development Group; interested in developing Fernbank.
Mona Gragg: Former Lord’s Chapel Sunday School teacher.
Johnny: Winnie Ivey’s deceased husband.
Old Man Mueller: An elderly Mitford resident; Esther Cunningham was responsible for the new roof on his house; has a dog named
Luther.
Henry Watts: Donated $15 to Mack Stroupe’s campaign.
Marie Sanders: Donated an armoire to The Bane and Blessing sale.
Ben Isaac Berman: An elegant old gentleman whose family brought him all the way from Decatur, Illinois, to Hope House, because of its outstanding reputation for nursing care and its beautiful surroundings.
Sandra Harris: Attends the Fernbank meeting; can’t wait to step outside for a smoke.
Clarence Daly: Troops into the meeting with a tray of cups and a pot of coffee.
Marsha Hunt: In charge of Lord’s Chapel preschoolers, including
Puny’s twins.
Erlene Douglas: President of Episcopal Church Women.
Father Douglas: Cynthia hopes he’ll take the service for Father Tim one Sunday, so her exhausted husband can get some rest.
Luther Green: “The tin roof of Omer Cunningham’s shed, formerly a hangar for his antique ragwing, was hurled toward Luther Green’s pasture, where the sight of it, gleaming and rattling and banging through the air, made the cows bawl with trepidation.”
Vanita Bentley: A Muse reporter and Bane and Blessing volunteer who helps gouge the Orange Marmalade Cake recipe out of its reluctant originator.
Marge Crowder: “You wouldn’t use a tablespoon of baking powder in a cake!”
Anna Nocelli Gregory: Andrew Gregory’s third cousin, and beautiful new Italian wife, into the bargain.
Antonio Nocelli: Anna Nocelli Gregory’s brother.
Dewey Morgan: An old acquaintance of Father Tim’s who worked at the state capitol.
Thomas Kendall: A pastry chef from Topeka, Kansas; Winnie Ivey discovered him on a cruise ship, and brought him home to Mitford.
The Perkinses: Big Esther-for-Mayor fans, working to bring in the vote.
Mitford Pets
Baxter: A cheerful dachshund at Hope House.
Hector, Barney, Muffin and Lucky: Cats that can be “rented” for up to two hours a day at Hope House.
Barney: A small pig in a petting zoo at the Political Barbecue.
Taco: Louella “rents” Taco every week; he obliges her by sitting in her lap for two hours, or until her leg goes to sleep.
Harry: A beagle at Hope House.
A NEW SONG
Marjorie Lamb: An ECW member involved in readying Dove Cottage for the new rector and his wife.
Leonard Lamb: Marjorie’s husband.
Sam Fieldwalker: Husband of Marion Fieldwalker, and one of the workers who spruced up Dove Cottage.
Father Morgan: Prior rector of St. John’s in the Grove.
Marion Fieldwalker: Librarian and long-time vestry member of St. John’s in the Grove; greets Father Tim and Cynthia with a glorious breakfast in their new home.
Bishop Harvey: Bishop of Father Tim’s new diocese.
Jimmy Duncan: Dooley went home from college with Jimmy. Jimmy drives a Wrangler, his mom drives a Range Rover, and his dad has a BMW 850, according to Dooley in a letter to Father Tim and Cynthia.
Hezikiah Hendrick: Coot Hendrick’s bearded ancestor, and founder of the town of Mitford.
Mary Jane Hendrick: Hezikiah’s English bride, whose maiden name was Mitford.
Father Bellwether: Father Tim moved into a rectory in Alabama vacated by Father Bellwether, who left behind “a 1956 Ford on blocks, several leaf bags filled with old shirts and sweaters, a set of mangled golf clubs, three room-size rugs chewed by dogs, an assortment of cooking gear, several doors without knobs, a vast collection of paperback mysteries, and other litter that couldn’t be completely identified.”
Miss McNolty: One of Father Tim’s teachers.
Lee Adderholt: One of the boys who smeared dog poop just inside the double doors of the schoolhouse, in an incident that earned the young Tim Kavanagh the nickname “Slick.”
Mr. Lewis: The principal in whose off
ice Father Tim ended up after beating the stuffing out of Tommy Noles.
Redmon Love: Owned the house next door to Dove Cottage. Otis Bragg: A parishioner who bought Dove Cottage and had it completely rehabbed. Otis and his wife, Marlene, offered it to the parish for the new interim priest.
Ernie Fulcher: Proprietor of Ernie’s Books, Bait & Tackle, the only bookstore on Whitecap. “It’s mostly used paperbacks of Louis L’Amour,” says Marion Fieldwalker.
Mona Fulcher: Ernie’s wife, who runs Mona’s Cafe across the hall from Ernie.
Marshall Duncan: Sam Fieldwalker’s junior warden.
Penny Duncan: Marshall Duncan’s wife.
Roanoke Clark: A house painter whom Father Tim meets at the bait and tackle shop. Father Tim thinks his weathered face resembles
“an apple that had lain too long in the sun.”
Junior Bryson: Another crony at the bait and tackle shop. Father Tim pitches in to help Junior find a wife.
Redmon Love: The gravesite of the Redmon Love family is guarded by an iron fence and a tall, elaborately formed angel clothed in lichen.
Jean Ballenger: Parishioner at St. John’s in the Grove. Avery Plummer: “Ran off” with another woman’s husband.
Jeffrey Tolson: Former choir director and, according to Marlene Bragg in a letter to Father Tim, “a scoundrel.”
Marlene Bragg: Blonde, tan, married to Otis Bragg.
Jonathan Tolson: The toddler belonging to Jeffrey and Janette Tolson.
Barbara Harvey: Bishop Harvey’s wife.
Reverend Stanley Harmon: Local Baptist minister.
Janette Tolson: Estranged wife of Jeffrey Tolson.
Louise Parker: In a bit of news from Mitford, Esther Bolick tells Father Tim that Louise went to Wesley with Reverend Sprouse, to pick out her casket.
Father Hayden: The interim at Lord’s Chapel.
Roger Templeton: A crony at the bait and tackle shop, always accompanied by his blind dog, Lucas. Roanoke says “Roger’s his seein’ eye human.”
Babette Tolson: Janette and Jeffrey Tolson’s daughter.
Jason Tolson: A son of Janette and Jeffrey Tolson.
Morris Love: Lives across the street from Dove Cottage, behind a wall and locked gate.
Father Tracey: Who, with his good wife, adopted fourteen children.
Father Moultrie: This fellow collected twenty-one children of various ages and backgrounds and had managed, so it was said, “to keep the whole lot in good order, though the addition he built to his suburban home had literally fallen down one night after a communal pillow fight.”