“ Oh Laverne, if ever there was an angel on this earth it was you. When you were a girl and I was an empty-headed, city-slicker boy, I would spend many wonderful days with you and your brothers during those hot Mississippi summers. It was utter heaven to me but endless work for you and your sweet mother. Being a female, you were expected to get up early in the mornings, to have breakfast ready for Junior, Dub, Paul, Glen and me. We wolfed it down and then left for our day of fun. Was there any thought of how that breakfast of homemade biscuits, sausage, eggs, gravy, etc, etc, ever happened? No time for that, it was time for a little work and a lot of play. Then when noon came it was back to the table, greeted with a meal fit for a preacher, prepared once again by you and your mother. And so it went day after day; without any thought ever about the sacrifices being made by Laverne, who was also young but having to do the work of an adult. But Laverne never complained, she seemed to consider her ceaseless work in a hot kitchen her role in life.
I only knew Laverne as a girl; after she grew into a woman, married, moved away, and made her way in the world, our lives went their separate ways. But the energetic, cheerful, generous girl I once knew will remain forever in my heart. Rest in peace my dear cousin, as I look back through seventy years of time, I can now see you were the best. ”