The Mitford Bedside Companion

by Jan Karon

  Ella Jean Bridgewater: Organist at St. John’s in the Grove.

  Minor: A young explorer with Admiral Byrd, who spent his last years as a maker of hot-air balloons. At the age of forty-seven, Ella Jean Bridgewater confessed to having fallen “head over heels” for Minor.

  Ray Porter: Bondsman whom Father Tim uses to release Dooley from jail.

  Agnes: Secretary to Otis Bragg.

  Ava Goodnight: Answered Junior Bryson’s personal ad.

  Father Jack Ferguson: Asked to supply at St. John’s while Father Tim and Cynthia make a trip to Mitford.

  Earlene Ferguson: Father Jack Ferguson’s wife.

  Father Talbot: The new priest at Lord’s Chapel, to be installed on All Saints’ Day.

  Ed Sikes: Pauline Barlowe gave her young son, Kenny, to this man, in exchange for a gallon of whisky.

  Drew Merritt: Son of Matthew Kavanagh’s law colleague. Father Tim’s father chose this boy over Tommy Noles to go along on a family vacation.

  Cap’n Larkin: Was a longtime member at St. John’s; now living with his twin brother on Dorchester Island.

  Captain Willie: Captain of the deep-sea fishing boat, Blue Heaven.Pete Brady: Captain Willie’s first mate.

  Madge Parrott: A widow whose late husband spoke of deep-sea fishing “like it was the best thing since sliced bread.”

  Sybil Huffman: Traveling with Madge, and also a widow. Both are from Rome, Georgia.

  Bishop Quayle: An old bishop who counseled with Father Tim many years ago.

  Caroline: Dooley’s girlfriend from Miss Hemingway’s school in Virginia.

  Father Grace: Served St. John’s until he was eighty-seven.

  Father Harry: Was seventy-one when his life as an interim began.

  Beulah Mae Hendrick: ninety-two-year-old mother of Mitford Mayoral candidate, Coot Hendrick.

  Bill Deal: County Sheriff who serves papers on Father Tim.

  Hélène Pringle: Rents the rectory in Mitford.

  Francoise: Hélène Pringle’s mother.

  Louis d’ Anjou: Hélène Pringle’s attorney.

  Mamie: Morris Love’s housekeeper.

  Misty Summers: A waitress at Mona’s.

  Betty: Ava Goodnight’s upbeat sister.

  Brother: Cap’n Larkin’s identical twin brother. Dora: Cap’n Larkin’s deceased wife.

  Loretta Burgess: Truck driver.

  Ray Gaskill: Lives in a house close to St. John’s.

  Albert Gragg: Informs Father Tim that Miss Ella had fallen and broken her hip.

  Stanley Harmon: Neighbor of Father Tim and Cynthia.

  Mildred Harmon: Stanley’s wife.

  Sewell Joiner: Otis sends him to make repairs to Dove Cottage, after the storm.

  Orville Hood: He keeps St. John’s oil tank filled.

  Maude Proffitt: Her ceiling caved in during the storm, barely missing the chair in which she was sitting.

  Sue Blankenship: Parishioner at St. John’s.

  Ann Hartsell: A nurse and a St. John’s parishioner.

  Edith Johnson: An ECW “bigwig.” Martha Talbot: Father Tim and Cynthia move into her million-dollar home while Dove Cottage is being repaired.

  Noah: Husband of Mamie, Morris Love’s housekeeper.

  Big Daddy Johnson: Used to take Mamie and Noah across in a little

  fishing boat, then came the ferry and afterward, the bridge.

  Tante Brigitte: Hélène Pringle’s grandfather’s sister.

  William Perry: Hélène Pringle’s father left a codicil to his final will and testament in the keeping of his solicitor, William Perry of Philadelphia.

  Albert Pringle: Hélène Pringle’s stepfather.

  Madeleine Duncan: During a church service at St. John’s, she whispers in her mother’s ear, “Look, Mommy, it’s a little tiny man with a big head.”

  Mitford Pets

  Margaret: Hope Winchester’s ginger-colored cat, also known as Margaret Ann.

  Barbizon: Hélène Pringle’s cat.

  Jeff: Tommy Noles’s dog.

  Bitsy: The Fieldwalker’s dog.

  Lucas: Roger Templeton’s blind dog. Elmo: Elmo, th’ Book Cat, belonging to Ernie Fulcher.

  Mick: A stray dog that Father Tim took up with one summer in Pass Christian, Mississippi.

  Louise: Ella Jean Bridgewater’s canary.

  Paul and Silas: Mildred and Stanley Harmon’s dogs.

  A COMMON LIFE

  Mike Stovall: The Presbyterian choirmaster who offered to throw in sixteen voices for the wedding ceremony, which, including the voices at Lord’s Chapel, would jack the total to thirty-seven. “A real tabernacle deal!” enthused the choirmaster. “We’ll even throw in a trumpet!”

  Richard: Lord’s Chapel organist and choirmaster. Bobby Prestwood: An old suitor of Esther Cunningham’s. He tried everything to get in her good graces, including making a fool of himself in Sunday School when he stood up one morning and told what he was thankful for. “I’m thankful for my Chevy V-8, my mama and daddy, and Esther Lovell!”

  Moses Marshall: Louella’s deceased husband. “She closed her eyes to rest them and held the picture against her heart, and saw her husband-to-be walking into the kitchen of the Atlanta boardinghouse. She was fifteen years old, with her hair in cornrows and the sense that something wonderful was about to happen. Moses Marshall flashed a smile that nearly knocked her winding. She had never seen anybody who looked like this when she was growing up in Mitford. The only people of color in Mitford were old and stooped over.”

  Miss Sally Lou: She was so little and dried up, some said she was a hundred, but Louella knew she was only eighty-two, “and still the boss cook of three meals a day at the boardinghouse.”

  Lot Stringman: A seller of produce in Holly Springs, Father Tim’s hometown. “‘Let me pick them peaches out for you, Miz Kavanagh,’ Mr. Stringman would say. ‘No, thank you, Mr. Stringman,’ his mother would say, ‘I like the doing of it myself.’”

  Annie Hawkins: The young Absalom Greer’s sweetheart. “He felt such a stirring in his breast that he might have been fourteen years old, going up Hogback to see Annie Hawkins, carrying two shot quail and a mess of turnips in a poke. Annie’s mama was dead of pneumonia and her daddy not heard of since the flood, and as Annie was left to raise a passel of brothers and sisters, he never went up Hogback without victuals.”

  Henry Oldman: He meets the newlyweds at the airport in the Cullen camp car, a 1981 turquoise Chevy Impala that made the rector’s Buick look mint condition.

  Miz Oldman: Henry’s wife, who outfits the Kavanaghs with rations for their honeymoon in the lodge on a lake in Maine.

  IN THIS MOUNTAIN

  Sophie Hawthorne: One of Hélène Pringle’s music students.

  Miss Helman: Sassy’s teacher, who asks the class to paint “somebody you like a lot, and not your mama or daddy.” Sassy painted Father Tim (he thought his nose looked like a turnip).

  Ada Rupert: Father Tim and the twins run into her at the bakery, where Father Tim is reminded of her “notoriously sharp tongue.” Hamp Floyd: Mitford’s earnest fire chief.

  Shorty Justice: Dooley remembers that his father, Clyde Barlowe, had a best friend, a drinking buddy named Shorty.

  Clyde Barlowe: Dooley’s long-vanished father.

  The Right Reverend Paul Jared Sotheby: He once counseled Father

  Tim, saying: “Timothy, stop this nonsense of preparing for the worst and spend your time preparing for the best!”

  Maude Boatwright: Her gravestone inscription at St. John’s reads: “Demure at last,” an epitaph Father Tim finds amusing

  Cedric Hart, Esq. (from Mitford, England): He writes to say that it was a “thumping good idea to have your Mitford and ours become sister villages.”

  Judy Hart: Cedric Hart’s wife.

  Cate Turner: Lace Turner’s alcoholic, often-violent father.

  Caldecott Turner: An old high-school sweetheart of Emma Newland.

  She searches the Internet for him while searching f
or Cate.

  Hope Winchester: Manager, Happy Endings Bookstore.

  Tate Smith: Works at the drugstore in Mitford.

  Alicia: School friend of Lace Turner who invites Lace to visit Alicia’s aunt in Martha’s Vineyard.

  Richard and Trudy: They share a mountain ministry with the irrepressible Father Harry.

  Joyce Havner: Cleans house at Meadowgate every Monday and Friday.

  Lewis: Bush hogs at Meadowgate.

  Sam Rayner: Does the milking at Meadowgate.

  Bo Davis: Handles the odd jobs at Meadowgate.

  Miss Wright: Father Tim’s Sunday School teacher when, at the age of twelve, he recited the whole of the sixteenth Psalm.

  Abner: A neighboring boy of Father Harry who comes to Father Harry’s door looking for work.

  Yancey: One of Father Tim’s grandfathers; died at the age of seventy.

  Dorene Little: “She is our favorite Arthur,” says Dorene Little in a Mitford Muse article, FAMED LOCAL ARTHUR TO RECEIVE AWARD.

  Pink Shuford: A pool shooter; Father Tim and Hélène run into him while looking for Sammy.

  Skin Head Bug Eye Snaggle Tooth Austin (Bug): Shoots pool with Pink Shuford.

  Mary Talbot: Wife of Lord’s Chapel rector, Father Henry Talbot.

  Marcello: Roberto’s close friend who made Cynthia’s art box from olive wood. Inside the box are seven of Roberto’s grandfather Leonardo’s pastelli.

  Lon Burtie: A Vietnam vet who lives in a rehabbed gas station; often gives Sammy a ride to town.

  Minnie Louder: Hessie Mayhew delivers flowers to Minnie, who has just undergone a kidney operation and turned eighty-four, all in the same day.

  Neese Simmons: His family grows Silver Queen corn in the valley, and delivers it to The Local. It’s always a big day in Mitford when the first corn comes in.

  Vada Simmons: Neese’s wife.

  Reba Sanders: A girlfriend of Dooley’s, and a skilled motorcycle mechanic.

  Miniver Tarleton: Legendary, eightysomething author/illustrator/ role model, according to Cynthia.

  Earlene: Lew Boyd’s sweetheart.

  Juanita Boyd: Lew Boyd’s wife, who died six years ago. Jonathan Ferguson: His signature appears on a check from a bank in

  Miami, as a donation to the Wesley Children’s Hospital—to be cashed only if Father Tim agrees to conduct a service in the mountain village of Kinloch.

  Jaybird Johnson: Clyde Barlowe gives this alias to Buck Leeper and

  Father Tim when they go looking for Sammy.

  Mary Fisher: “The roads to Kinloch were winding—it would be more than an hour and a half in each direction. He rang Mary

  Fisher twice but got an answering machine with a digital recording that declined to take a message.”

  Emeline Poovey: Percy says Coot Hendrick once pursued Emeline, who was from “over at Blackberry.”

  Sauce Harris: Emeline married this legendary bootlegger who robbed

  The Local when Avis’s daddy owned it.

  Miss Tomlinson: Waves to Hope Winchester and mouths “Are…you…all right?” when she sees Hope sitting in the bookstore window, dazed.

  Tran van Hoi: A farmer in Vietnam, who was kind to Lon Burtie.

  Reverend Millie Tipton: Pastors the local Methodist Chapel.

  Maisie: Uncle Billy’s little sister, whom he often mentions in the series.

  Beverly Hobgood: Bishop Cullen’s secretary.

  Jeanine Stroup: An employee at Mitford Hospital who calls Father

  Tim to say that Bill Watson’s asking for the preacher. Richard Crandon: Writes a letter to the Mitford Muse editor and signs it “Richard Crandon, POLITICALLY CORRECT AND PROUD OF IT!!”

  Johnson Cutliffe: Attorney for Coot Hendrick.

  Mrs. Marshall Hendrick: Coot Hendrick’s elderly mother.

  Mildred: “For more information on getting Mrs. Hendrick to sing for your club or group, call 555-6240 at the town office and ask for Mildred.”

  Andrew and Margaret Hart: The Mitford (UK) Sister Village Coordinating Committee plans to send this couple to Mitford.

  Louise: Hope Winchester’s sister.

  Bill Adkins: One of the neighbors gathered on Edie Adams’s front lawn, observing the fire on the ridge.

  Gary Barnes: Owns a paper over the mountain that’s gone from black-and-white to full color.

  Buster Boyd: Chief Floyd gets the call about the fire from Buster Boyd.

  Mitford Pets

  Buddy: Bill Sprouse’s new dog.

  Willie: The Fieldwalkers dog. (It adopted them.)

  Guber: Lace Turner’s Labrador (short for gubernatorial).

  SHEPHERDS ABIDING

  Fred Addison: Works at Oxford Antique Shop.

  Reverend Simon: A fervent Bible scholar and Father Tim’s mother’s much-loved Baptist preacher.

  Miss Grayson: First grade teacher at Mitford School.

  Emily Townsend: Third grade Mitford school student.

  Lois Holshouser: Retired drama teacher at Wesley High.

  Bob Hartley: Is giving his boy, Harry, a Roto-Tiller.

  Faye Tuttle: Announces a relative’s sad news to Esther Cunningham. “Multiple dystrophy,” says Faye.

  Peggy: A young woman of color who worked for the Kavanaghs in Holly Springs; helps Mrs. Kavanagh with cooking, washing, and ironing; lives in a small cabin down the lane.

  Rufe: A handyman who worked part-time for the Kavanaghs. Mamy Phillips: Lives in a small house next to Lord’s Chapel with her cat, Popeye.

  Nurse Austin: Nurse at Hope House.

  Mitford Pets

  Popeye: A cat belonging to Mamy Phillips.

  Luther: Old Man Mueller’s dog; known to have precisely 241 freckles on his belly.

  LIGHT FROM HEAVEN

  Willie Mullis: Full-timer at Meadowgate who lives on the farm and looks after the livestock.

  Joyce Havner: Longtime housekeeper at Meadowgate.

  Thomas and Timothy: Twin boys belonging to Puny and Joe Guthrie; nicknamed Tommy and Timmy.

  Tracy: Trustee handling Dooley’s trust account.

  Buster: Local locksmith.

  Agnes Merton: Mother of Clarence Merton; former deaconess at Holy Trinity Church and school.

  Clarence Merton: Deaf, and an accomplished woodworker; he and his mother cared for Holy Trinity and its grounds for more than thirty years.

  Jessie Bennett: Young deaconess who accompanied Agnes Merton from Maine.

  Moses McKinney: Built the trestle table in the old schoolhouse where Agnes and Clarence now live.

  Little Bertie: Jessie Bennett’s niece.

  Granny Meaders: Neighbor who took Rooter in when his parents abandoned him as a baby.

  Rooter: Bright, headstrong, talkative; Granny Meaders considers him a grandson.

  Robert Pritchard: In prison for eleven years for allegedly killing his grandfather; owns an automobile repair shop in Lambert. Lloyd Goodnight: Came to Holy Trinity as an infant and was baptized in Wilson’s Creek; later acted as crucifer.

  Jubal Adderholt: Hasn’t been off the ridge in fourteen years. Stubborn, irascible, and an ardent squirrel hunter.

  Ruthie Adderholt: Jubal’s former wife, who once baked him a blueberry pie and left a note saying, “I’m gone and don’t look for me.”

  Quint Severs: Local mechanic who worked on Agnes’s Buick.

  Martha and Mary McKinney: Sisters who were cradle Episcopalians, but switched to the Methodists after Holy Trinity closed.

  Johnny Chiltosky: Mary McKinney’s deceased part-Cherokee husband of forty-two years.

  Portman Henshaw: Bank clerk in Holding. Martha McKinney rode with him each day to Granite Springs, where she was a teacher.

  Miss Hettie Henshaw: Portman’s wife. Martha McKinney had to write Miss Hettie a formal note every January, asking permission to ride down the mountain with her husband.

  Thomas Henshaw: Portman’s eldest son, who takes Miss Martha and Miss Mary food shopping once a week.

  Donny Luster: Agn
es refers to him as “a most remarkable young man.” Sings, plays guitar and mandolin, preaches, raises cattle, and mows hay for a livelihood.

  Sissie Gleason: Five-year-old daughter of Dovey Gleason, Donny’s sister.

  Dovey Gleason: Mother of Sissie Gleason; sister to Donny.

  Mamaw Ruby Luster: Donny’s and Dovey’s mother, imprisoned for killing her husband.

  Pansy Flower: One of the famed Flower Girls who clean and cook in the valley. The family consists of Iris, Lily, Rose, Arbutus, Delphinium, Violet, Daisy, Jack in the Pulpit, and Sweet William.

  Sparkle Foster: A hairdresser in the valley.

  Wayne Foster: Sparkle’s husband.

  Grace Monroe: Provided a home to Agnes during and after Agnes’s pregnancy with Clarence.

  George Monk: Clarence met him in a woodworking class. Mr. Monk was ninety-four and owned a tool chest from Sheffield, England, which had come down in his family of woodworkers. When Clarence was eleven, George Monk died and left the chest to Clarence, whom he called “gifted.”

  Fred Lynch: Lives in a school bus; accuses Robert Pritchard of killing his grandfather, Cleve Pritchard.

  Judd and Cindy Baker: From California; bought the old Greer Store. Cleve Pritchard: Robert Pritchard’s grandfather.

  Leanna Millwright: mother of seven; attends Holy Trinity.

  Rankin Cooper: A lapsed Baptist, but a “God-fearing Christian” who would consider visiting Holy Trinity if he could talk his Methodist wife into going with him.

  Hank Triplett: Owns the store at the bridge. Buster: Works with Lloyd at Meadowgate.

  Bud Wyzer: Proprietor of Bud’s Billiards in Wesley.

  Dunn Crawford: A pool hustler, nicknamed Hook.

  Sally Triplett: Hank Triplett’s fourteen-year-old daughter.

  Edna Swanson: A Methodist neighbor of Miss Martha and Miss Mary.

  Roy Dale and Gladys: A young brother and sister who occasionally attend Holy Trinity.

  John Owen: Hal and Marge’s son who died in his teens of severe encephalitis.

  Marsha Ford: Donates to Holy Trinity the piano that her husband,

  Frank, played.

  Officers Justice and Daly: Answered the Meadowgate call regarding a missing boy.