Mom and Daddy

The values instilled in me are a direct result of my wonderful parents, Doyle and Lavez Blackwood, both of whom are deceased now. Both were raised in church and it was a vital part of their lives. Church wasn’t just a Sunday morning where friends gathered to share stories of the previous week. Everything revolved around their church life. They had friends outside the church but their close friends shared their faith and their lives with one another. Baptisms occurred often in the creek behind the church often but mostly in the summertime. January baptisms in that cold creek were an exception.

Mother and Daddy met in the town of Jackson, MS. Daddy (that’s southern for Father and that’s what I called him) had moved from Kosciusko, MS where the quartet had a daily morning live radio broadcast to the big city of Jackson, MS and a larger radio station that reached more people. Mother had left her home of two brothers and two sisters, her mother and father (Emmett and Orrie Hawkins) and upon graduating from high school she moved to Jackson where she began her classes at business school to become a secretary. Both lived in the same boarding house. Mother was actually engaged to another man but didn’t have a ring. My father saw her in the hall and it was love at first sight. He knew of her engagement but he told her that he would win her from her love interest and that he did. Their courtship wasn’t like today. He would pass by her room each afternoon and throw a note through the transom over the door inviting her to go to the mailbox to get the mail with him. How exciting that must have been. That little 5 ft, 3 inch man won her heart and their courtship began. He was a captivating personality and she just couldn’t resist his country charm. Their marriage involved a double wedding as my father’s brother, James, had met his sweetheart, Miriam, at a local concert. Two weddings for the price of one; that was another trait we southerners still possess. In fact, the family was so frugal we were accused of being Scotch! However, a recent DNA test revealed we were actually from Northern England!  I was just “gobsmacked” when I learned that. And that’s a word I DIDN’T learn down south in Dixie!