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And it is in this atmosphere and against this background that our children?s generation is giving impetus to the lines of development which have so strikingly emerged in the South.
It is clear that our brave, our beautiful, our maligned South has unlimited possibilities.
THE LIVING GENERATIONS
My wife graduated from Whitworth Female College in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and then taught school in Tallulah, Louisiana, area.
?Two shall be born the whole wide world apart *** that one day they shall meet and read life?s meaning in each other?s eyes.?
I met her when she visited an aunt in Birmingham in the summer of 1916, losing my heart immediately and completely to this lovely, high-minded young school teacher; and, following a courtship beset with rivals and anxieties, I was so fortunate as to be accepted and we were married the following spring.
This was indeed the lucky day for our family to come, because, as my sales work entailed constant traveling, the responsibility for rearing and training our children fell largely to her.
And to them she devoted every waking moment, always sympathetic and understanding, but never relaxing a firm insistence that their grades be superior and their conduct above reproach.
This training by precept and example ? she has never smoked, for instance ? her high ideals of duty, honor, and Southern chivalry, and the virtues transmitted from the brave and gallant men and women in her ancestry, are reflected in the sound character and community respect enjoyed by our children.
And whether as ?Ollie?, ?Mother? or ?Grand-mamma?, she is the ?adored one? among our family of 25 ? all living nearby in Birmingham; and the twilight of our lives is brightened by these intimate family associations.
Our oldest boy, Alvin, Jr., has been described as among Alabama?s great heroes of World War II. His decorations include the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. But his outstanding success in the fields of law and electric utility management has tended to obscure his war record. He was among the first American fighter pilots to go overseas in World War II, arriving in the European Theater of Operations at the time when Germany virtually dominated the skies. He flew first out of England, then, as a participant in the North African invasion, he was captured by the Germans and held for two years as a prisoner-of-war in Stalag Luft III, at Sagan, deep in East Germany. He escaped five times. Recaptured on his first four attempts, he succeeded at last in reaching Switzerland and freedom.
In the compound, he was known among his fellow prisoners, some 7,500 young American air officers, as the ?Big X?, which means the ?Big Escape? man.
Our second son, Pat, served on an Infantry Landing Craft in the Navy and was a first day participant in invasions of both Normandy Beach and Southern France.
Our younger son, Jesse, name-sake of his Mississippi ?horse-and-buggy? country doctor grandfather, was too young for service, but his college record in ROTC was outstanding.
When, in the early days of the Roman republic, Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, was asked to display her wealth, she pointed to her two strong sons. And so in the same sense, we point to our children, daughter Sybil ?our heart??kind and pure-minded, like her mother, and sons Alvin, Jr., Pat and Jesse, our ?knights in shining armor?. We lost Sybil?s twin sister Cecile, as an infant.