MY MOTHER’S SIDE
The Parnells of Sledge, Miss.
NOTE: Parnell is pronounced par-NELL
▲ My grandmother, Martha Agnes Sloan (1885-1964), before her marriage to Dr. Parnell, at age eighteen.
She bore three children while raising two older ones—my “Uncle Brother” and “Aunt Sister” — from her husband’s previous marriage to her late sister.
You can read that poignant story in Chapter 2 of BETTING ON BERNIE.
▲ Mama’s older half-brother, whom I and my cousins called “Uncle Brother”—better known as Hilliard Sloan Parnell—lived with his wife Jewel in this house in Shreveport, Louisiana. This photo is from 1954. He’s a player in the poignant story mentioned directly above.
▲ My mother, Margaret Parnell Alford (1914-2008) and me in a studio portrait made in 1951, when I was five. This was an informal pose meant for us to keep.
We had to look more serious in another shot meant for our mother-daughter passport that was required for our flight to Germany and used throughout our three years in Europe, 1951-1954.
▲ Martha Sloan Parnell, in Sledge, Mississippi, 1949. She was Granddaddy’s 2nd wife, following the death of her sister (his 1st wife). My mother was the first of her three children.
My parents named me “Martha Frances” for Mama’s mother and younger sister.
▲ My Grandmother and Grandfather Parnell in their back yard in July 1951. He would die the next year of a massive heart attack that he, an experienced medical doctor, never saw coming. Such was mid-century medicine.
Everyone in my generation called them “Grandmother” and “Granddaddy.”
Mama, Daddy, and I were living in Germany when Granddaddy died. In those days, people didn’t fly so often, so Mama wasn’t able to go home for the funeral. My only memories of him date from 1951, the year we lived in Sledge.
▲ This was my fifth birthday party, held at my grandparents’ home in Sledge in July 1951. As the photo shows, I received roller skates, two small dolls, and a cute cat card. I appear to be very serious about blowing out all five candles.
▼ In the back row on that same day: my Aunt Frances Parnell Gordon (left), her husband E.L. Gordon, and Mama. My grandparents are seated in the middle. I’m in front between my older cousins, Helen Claire and Margaret Jane Gordon.
▲ My grandfather, Carter C. Parnell, MD (1877-1952), in the car that served as his “horse and buggy” in the final years of his practice in the Mississippi Delta.
In 1951 (the same year Mama made this photo), he was honored by the State of Mississippi for his fifty years of service to the people of that state.
▲ Uncle C.C. Parnell (left), Daddy, and me—the topless toddler—with a giant catfish they had caught in a nearby river, 1948.
You can read a strange story related to that uncle and that catfish in Chapter 7 of BETTING ON BERNIE.
▲ My Uncle C.C., Mama’s younger brother—he was a Jr., named for his father, my grandfather—hauls four of us girl cousins around in his wheelbarrow in Sledge, 1949. I’m the little one in dark blue with a white collar… having fun!
▼ In Sledge, in 1951, I’m wearing a cowgirl outfit that Mama had given me for my fifth birthday. Movie cowboys and cowgirls were all the rage at that time, so I was quite in style!
Soon after Mama took this photo, she and I flew to Germany to join Daddy in Heidelberg. That’s why you’ll also see me in this same getup, standing on the border between Spain and France, near the bottom of the Spain page of the Scenes and Stories from Europe: 1951-1954 section.
