Murial B. Williams of LaGrange College

Murial Brittain Williams (1923-1999) was a professor of English literature at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia for nearly thirty years, retiring in 1992. Her lectures were brilliant and funny ~ she made literature come alive for her students. The Murial B. Williams Award for Excellence in Literary Studies was named in her memory. She was the author of Marriage: Fielding's Mirror of Morality, published by the University of Alabama in 1973. Read the full biography of Murial B. Williams at Southern Muse.

Alabama Zizzer Buttons

When I was a kid and we got a little bored, Mama would make us a zizzer button. She would take a long piece of thick thread, put it through the holes of a button, and tie the ends of the thread. We were young and naive enough to be thrilled by this. We would twist the ends of the thread around and round and round. Then we pulled at both ends. The button would zing around and give a high-pitched zzz-z-z sound ~ hence the name. Most of the world would call that a button-on-a-string, but being Southern, Alabama natives prefer the more poetic term.

Zizzer buttons weren't Christmas toys ~ no more than a June bug on a string, which wouldn't be around Christmas, and anyhow would have PETA up in arms. Today's kid would look askance at the humble zizzer button. But cell phones, CDs, and Star Trek were unheard of back then. Guitar Hero was unplugged. Times were simple, but from the sound of all that Depression talk, we might want to reexamine the lowly ZB!

John Herschel White, Home from Korea

Nearly 58 years ago, John Herschel White, a young man of 17, went missing in action in Korea. This afternoon, as I left for work, Mother saw an announcement that there would be a story on the news about a soldier, missing in action for 58 years, who was "coming home" to Sand Mountain. When I got back home, she said, "Do you know who that soldier was? Herschel White!" Mother remembered when Herschel went missing, all those years ago. "He was Carl's cousin," she said. (Carl Wallers was my uncle). She had gone to school with the Whites, and actually was doubly related to Herschel, without knowing it (being descended from the Cooper family and the Wigley family). She saw Herschel's sisters, Nina Ruth and Faye on the news, and remembered them from school. "And Faye married a Cooper," she said. "I don't know which one."
"Probably one of ours," I said.
Sgt. John Herschel White, missing in action in Korea all those years, will be buried in Bryant, Alabama, on July 15, 2008.