Page 11 - Firehouse Pond

It had been twenty-five years since mom, and I moved away. All contact

with my Charleston family had been severed by my mother. I was told
horrific stories about my father and Charleston. “It is best left alone.” was
her admonition.

What did I know as a little boy? Not a word had been spoken with my family
in Charleston, no letters were written, no phone calls. I had no interest in
returning to my birthplace. I was there because my brother asked me to meet

him, not because I had any burning desire to ever return.

My brother, my son and I visited my father at the Poplar Bluff Veterans

Medical Center. He was reportedly on his death bed with only a few weeks
to live. As it turned out, he lived eleven more years – without any further
contact. He died in 1993 and is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery,

Charleston, Missouri. I did not know where he was buried until I returned to
my roots in June 2015.

The “serious family trouble” turned out to be nothing, or was it? From about
the age of ten until that visit to Charleston, I had heard stories about my
grandfather, father, and mother and a man she had been “involved with”
while my father was serving in the army during WWII. My brother’s urgency

was that our father was gravely ill and was facing possible murder charges
pertaining to the man and our mother. During our visit, my brother and I met
with the Charleston Police Chief and Mississippi County Sheriff.

I returned to Texas believing my father, with the help of my grandfather, had
killed my mother’s lover in a fit of rage. During my visit to Charleston in
June 2015, I was able to research and determine that my grandfather and

father had been cleared of any wrongdoing and that the story of my mother
having a lover was rumor based.

Time has a funny way of changing one’s perspective. As you will learn, I
was a military man. I served my country for more than twenty-two years
from 1967 to 1990. I traveled the world. I never gave any thought to

returning to my birthplace until I married a fifth-generation Kentucky lady
and moved to Lexington; three hundred forty miles from Charleston; an easy
five-and-a-half-hour drive.