Musty Archiving

Well, I am done.  I have successfully gone through a huge box of old newspapers from 1964 that my mom  has stored in one place or another for the past 40 plus years.  There was a point during mine, Sally and Janie's week of going through Momma's stuff that we looked at each other and couldn't decide to hang onto it or pitch it.  We were just overwhelmed with the amount of pictures and things around us, that taking on a bag of crumbly paper didn't sound like fun.  BUT.  My mom had her reasons to hang onto it.  And we all knew why.  She loved her dad so incredibly much, and these newspapers were all about him.  My granddad passed away when my mom was 23, so we never met him.  But she told us many stories about him.  Namely, how smart he was and well respected in his profession.  Back in the day, he was the youngest person every elected to district attorney in Mississippi, and had a successful career as both a prosecutor and defender.

These newspapers followed one of his big cases.  He was co-counsel for the defense in the Byron DeLa Beckwith trial.  It was a very volatile period for MS civil rights, and this case was a hot bed of emotions.

So, I have all the articles now stored in a neat little binder.  It was something my mom always wanted to do I am sure, so I am happy that I carved out some time to get it done.  It would be interesting to hear what my Granddad had to say about the subject, but at least I/my sisters/family can now sit down and read about it.