Flannery (51 page)

4
“frizzled”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Chronology,”
CW,
1238.

4
“the Pathé man”:
CW,
832.

4
“Odd fowl walks”: “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse,” Pathe News Reel Series, 1931, GCSU.

5
“celebrity”: FOC to Betty Hester, December 15, 1955,
HB,
126.

5
“From that day”:
CW,
832.

6
“Now there are”: Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, October 1, 1948,
The Letters of Robert Lowell,
edited by Saskia Hamilton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 111.

7
“My quest”:
CW,
832.

8
“dance forward”: Ibid., 835.

8
“dignified ferocity”: “Notes,”
CW,
1270.

CHAPTER ONE: SAVANNAH

13
“element of ham”: FOC to Maryat Lee, Ground Hog Day, 1958,
HB,
265.

13
“The things we see, hear, smell”: FOC, “The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South,”
CW,
855.

14
“unsettled”:
Savannah Morning News
(March 25, 1925): 1.

14
“Sinner Must Be Reborn”: Ibid., 11.

15
“I never was one”: FOC to Betty Hester, December 20, 1958,
HB,
309.

16
“I was brought up”: FOC to Janet McKane, July 25, 1963,
HB,
531.

16
“inmates”: Hugh R. Brown, “Flannery O’Connor, The Savannah Years,” unpublished essay, 6, private collection.

17
“We had a black cook”: Patricia Persse, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 15, 2004.

17
“I remember the square”: Dan O’Leary, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 15, 2004.

18
“It was so Catholic”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 5.

19
“My first memories”: Katherine Groves, “We Remember Mary

Flannery” panel, O’Connor Childhood Home, Savannah, Ga., February 4, 1990.

21
“I don’t think mine”: FOC to Betty Hester, February 25, 1956,
HB,
141.

21
“Mass was first said”: FOC to Janet McKane, May 17, 1963,
HB,
520.

22
“a grand pyrotechnic display”: “Looking Back: 1890,”
Union-Recorder.

22
“for the northern markets”: “Thirty Years Ago in Baldwin,”
Union-Recorder,
March 16, 1923.

22
“Little girl, what you got”: Alice Carr, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 25, 2004.

22
“I don’t know anybody”: FOC to Father James H. McCown, April 3, 1956,
HB,
142.

23
“interesting, quiet”: undated newspaper clipping, private collection.

23
“put on his white”: Sally Fitzgerald, “The Invisible Father,”
Christianity and Literature
47, no. 1 (Autumn 1997): 15.

23
“a robust, amused”: Robert Fitzgerald, “Introduction,”
Everything That Rises Must Converge
by Flannery O’Connor (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1965), x.

24
“The wedding will take place”:
Savannah Morning News,
October 8, 1922; following the marriage in Milledgeville, a Savannah wedding reception was held at the home of William Jay Harty on Gwinnett Street.

25
“There seems little doubt”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 16.

26
“’umbled”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Margaret Florencourt Mann. These interviews were conducted and transcribed by O’Hare for a Flannery O’Connor documentary that has yet to be released.

26
“beautifully cared for”: Barbara McKenzie,
Flannery O’Connor’s Georgia
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980), xvi.

27
“Roll of the Female Orphanage Society”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 24.

27
“King of Siam”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Flannery O’Connor: Patterns of Friendship, Patterns of Love,”
Georgia Review
52, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 409.

27
“Hold your head up”: Kathleen Feeley, S.S.N.D, “‘Mine Is a Comic Art . . .’ Flannery O’Connor,”
Realist of Distances: Flannery O’Connor Revisited,
edited by Karl-Heinz Westarp and Jan Nordby Gretlund (Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1987; New Brunswick, N.J.: 1972), 67.

27
“Ed would not have put”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 10.

28
“R.C.O’C.”: Ibid., 9.

28
“All the mothers walked the little girls to school”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 20.

29
“every day”:
Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 16.

29
“novena-rosary tradition”: FOC to John Lynch, February 19, 1956,
HB,
139.

29
“big girls”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 9–13.

30
“I delivered”: Dan O’Leary, in discussion with the author, September 15, 2004.

30
“a pidgeon-toed”: FOC, “Biography,” GCSU.

31
“Tarso-Supernator-Proper Built”: FOC, untitled story, GCSU.

31
“some sort of corrective”: Patricia Persse, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 15, 2004.

31
“If I took off”: “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, November 2, 1990.

32
“I suppose my father”: FOC to Betty Hester, July 28, 1956,
HB,
167–68.

32
a pencil and blue crayon: Kelly Suzanne Gerald, “Flannery O’Connor: Toward a Visual Hermeneutics” (PhD dissertation, Auburn University, 2001), 7–8.

33
“She’d stand there”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 16.

34
“When we were”: “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 11, 1990.

34
“backyard quail farm”: “Quail Farm on Peachtree,”
Atlanta Constitution,
Sunday edition, June 4, 1939.

34
“Nothing remarkable”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 15.

34
“full of wire”: Unidentified fragment, GCSU.

34
“pulled the rubber bands”: Lillian Dowling Odom, “Flannery O’Connor Childhood Friend: Lost and Found,” unpublished manuscript, 3, private collection.

35
“a very innocent speller”: FOC to Ben Griffith, March 3, 1954,
CW,
923.

35
“Mother, I made”: Odom, “Childhood Friend,” 19.

35
“smash an atom”: FOC,
Wise Blood,
working draft, GCSU.

36
“A lot of them”: FOC to Dr. T. R. Spivey, August 19, 1959,
CW,
1104.

36
“taught by the sisters”: FOC to Father James H. McCown, January 12, 1958,
CW,
1061.

36
“hot house innocence”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 11.

36
“a long standing avoider”: FOC to Elizabeth Bishop, June 1, 1958,
CW,
1073.

36
“From 8 to 12”: FOC to Betty Hester, January 17, 1956,
CW,
983.

36
“as natural to me”: FOC to William Sessions, July 8, 1956,
HB,
164.

37
“a very peculiar child”: Patricia Persse, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 3, 1990.

37
turned a child away: Sister Jude Walsh, “Armstrong State College Panel on O’Connor,” Savannah, Ga., May 1989: “Marguerite [Pinckney Knowland] told me that one day one of her playmates came with her and she came to the house with Marguerite but she was dispatched home by Mrs. O’Connor and made clear to Marguerite that she did not want her to bring any other children with her when she came to play.”

37
“Let’s Pretend”:
Information on the program was taken from: Arthur Anderson,
Let’s Pretend and the Golden Age of Radio
(Boatsburg, Pa.: BearManor Media, 2004).

38
“How do we get”: Cynthia Zarin, “Not Nice,”
The New Yorker
(April 17, 2006): 38.

38
“Mrs. O’Connor was”: Newell Turner Parr, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 10, 1990.

39
“She had pages and pages”: Ibid.

39
“But then Marguerite”: Sister Jude Walsh, in discussion with the author, June 5, 2006.

39
“No one was spared”: Thea Jarvis, “Flannery — Georgia’s Own,”
Atlanta Journal and Constitution,
May 8, 1980. According to Kathleen Feeley, the short satiric descriptions of uncles and cousins were typed; another booklet of words and pictures was titled “Ladies and Gents, Meet the Three Mister Noseys.” Under the appropriate faces were the captions “Mr. Long Nose; Mr. Sharp Nose; Mr. Snut Nose”: Kathleen Feeley, S.S.N.D., “‘Mine Is a Comic Art . . . ,’” 67.

39
“I wrote a book”: FOC to Maryat Lee, March 9, 1960, GCSU.

40
“We heard stories”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 18.

40
“We were a rough”: Ibid.

40
“the strictness of a certain nun”: Jean Cash,
Flannery O’Connor: A Life
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002), 16.

41
“It reminded me”: Sister Jude Walsh, in discussion with the author, June 5, 2006.

41
“They were strict”: Patricia Persse, in discussion with the author, September 15, 2004.

41
“prissy”: Sister Jude Walsh, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 11, 1990.

41
“genteel Victorian ladies”: FOC to Cudden Ward Dorrance, March 29, 1964, UNC.

42
“Mary Flannery was at dancing”: Odom, “Childhood Friend,” 18.

43
“He was so tall”: Kitty Smith, quoted in Alice Alexander, “The Memory of Milledgeville’s Flannery O’Connor Is Still Green,”
Atlanta Journal,
March 28, 1979.

43
“swept into office”: “E. F. O’Connor, Jr. Commands Legion,”
Savannah Morning News,
June 28, 1936.

43
“aloof”: Cash,
Flannery O’Connor,
9.

43
“I am never likely to romanticize”: FOC to Betty Hester, July 28, 1956,
HB,
168.

43
“More likely”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 11.

43
“He was quite an orator”: Angela Ryan Dowling, in discussion with the author, October 12, 2004.

44
“Head of Legion”:
Savannah Morning News,
November 11, 1936.

44
“in tones not usually”: FOC to Betty Hester, July 1956,
HB,
166.

44
“Last year I read”: Ibid.

44
“My father wanted”: Ibid., July 28, 1956,
HB,
168.

44
“I suppose”: Ibid., August 11, 1956,
HB,
169.

45
“at that time”: FOC to Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, March 17, 1953,
CW,
909.

45
“Oh I don’t know”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 11.

45
“Tried to get in touch”: Edward O’Connor to Erwin Sibley, December 23, 1937, GCSU.

46
“When I was twelve”: FOC to Betty Hester, February 11, 1956,
CW,
985.

46
“She never knew”: Newell Turner Parr, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 11, 1990.

47
“MF”: FOC, untitled story, GCSU.

47
“I know some folks”: FOC, memorabilia, GCSU.

47
“First rate”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Chronology,”
CW,
1238.

48
“read those books”: MFOC to Helen Soul, undated letter, Emory.

48
“Awful”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Chronology,”
CW,
1238.

48
“Peculiar but I never could”: FOC to Betty Hester, June 14, 1958,
HB,
288.

48
“wasn’t a literary”: Ibid., June 28, 1956,
HB,
164.

48
“was stiff already”: FOC, untitled fragment, GCSU.

49
“Can’t tell you”: Edward O’Connor to Erwin Sibley, January 4, 1938, GCSU.

49
“Cousin Katie”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, February 15, 1959,
HB,
318.

49
“My papa”: FOC to Elizabeth Fenwick Way, August 4, 1957,
HB,
233.

50
“I think you probably”: FOC to Maryat Lee, February 24, 1957,
CW,
1023.

CHAPTER TWO: MILLEDGEVILLE: “A BIRD SANCTUARY”

51
“the glad news”: Nelle Womack Hines, ed.,
A Treasure Album of Milledgeville and Baldwin County, Georgia
(Macon, Ga.: Press of J. W. Burke, 1949), 48.

52
“It was
well
”: FOC to George Haslam, March 2, 1957,
CW,
1023.

52
“Why don’t you”: FOC to Maryat Lee, May 20, 1960,
HB,
396.

52
“Mrs. E. F. O’Connor”: “Social and Society,”
Union-Recorder,
July 1926.

52
“Mr. and Mrs. Ed O’Connor”: “Social Highlights,”
Union-Recorder,
November 11, 1937.

52
“a styling epicenter”: Padgett Powell, “Andalusia Is Open,”
Oxford American,
(July/August 2003): 30.

52
“We have a girls’ college”: FOC to Ben Griffith, February 13, 1954,
CW,
919.