James Beidler

Roots & Branches

A couple of months ago I used my late (and much more renowned) Alabama newspaper colleague from the late Birmingham Post-Herald Bill Lumpkin’s phrase “Hangin’ out wash” to introduce a “Roots & Branches” column with multiple topics.

Longtime readers will recall that I’ve done that a few times over the 27 years that “Roots & Branches” has been published since I always thought that was the perfect way to express such a concept.

So imagine my surprise when recently I opened an email from Karen Kivette from Acworth, Georgia, which is north of Atlanta. Now I know that “Roots & Branches” reaches people across country (and even a few internationally) but this wasn’t someone with whom I’d ever corresponded.

It turns out that Kivette has a vested interest in Lumpkin. “I read your article referring to ‘Hanging Out the Wash’ and it really touched me,” Kivette wrote.

“I’m Bill Lumpkin’s daughter and I remember fondly my father’s Wednesday’s articles on Hanging Out the Wash. My father was a talented and lifelong newspaper man–thank you for recognizing him.”

I was a bit “gobsmacked” by her reaching out to me and asked how she had come to do it.

“Interestingly, my husband was asking about a column by dad wrote on George Wallace (Wallace was a boxer). I told him I didn’t think he could find it and he kept searching,” Kivette related.

“Believe it or not, your column came up. My husband said you have to read this–your dad lives on!” Kivette wrote.

She said that her parents moved to Georgia about 12 years ago to be close to her and her brother. “Of course, Alabama was always home for them,” she wrote. “My mom is still living and is 96 years old.”

All of this was a nice coincidence, but Kivette floored me with what she wrote next.

“It was also interesting that you write a genealogy column,” she wrote.

“I’ve become interested in my family’s history and am in several lineage societies,” including the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Before her father died, she was able to tell him about some special parts of his lineage. “I was proud to share with my father, before he passed, that we have ancestors that served in the American Revolution and a few were at Jamestowne,” she wrote.

I’m sure that ol’ “Lump,” as we called him in the Post-Herald newsroom, was appreciative of his daughter’s efforts.

“Again, thank you for your kind remembrance of my father. It made my day,” Kivette concluded.

And it made mine, too, coming in on a busy Monday morning!

Beidler is a freelance writer and lecturer on genealogy. Contact him by e-mail to jamesmbeidler@gmail.com. Like him on Facebook (James M. Beidler).