Pa Flagg

My great-grandfather, John Fletcher Flagg, known to his children and grandchildren as Pa. I have to say I think this is one of the most amazing photographs I have ever seen. The fact that it is my ancestor is just a bonus. His expression and posture reveal so much about himself and his life. From his disconnected gaze we can see the toll life had paid upon him by this point. It is almost as if you can see straight into his soul.

Pa was a heavy drinker and what my granddaddy, his son-in-law, called a "real rounder". This apparently meant, in not so many words, that Pa liked to have a good time. In fact when I showed this picture to him a few years ago he commented that Pa was "probably drunk" in it. Still he was adored by his wife, children and grandchildren. I remember my nanny telling me stories about him when I was young, especially the story about the day he died in 1960. She had a hallway in her house lined with 3 framed pictures of her father at varying stages of his life which I loved to look at as a kid. I could tell even as a young girl that he had been a great hero to her and her siblings, who I was very close with.

Pa was born in 1899 on an old plantation farm called Montpelier in Caroline County Virginia. He had an identical twin brother, Roderick, whose life would be cut short in 1936 when he accidentally drowned in the Mattaponi River. In 1916, Pa went to Michigan to enlist in the Army and served as a Cavalryman in the Great War. After returning home he married Ethel Wright Stevens, known in the family as Bum. Between 1924 and 1937, they had 5 daughters and one son. Like many Virginians, Pa worked as a farmer and merchant all of his life. On Jan. 3, 1960, he died suddenly of a heart attack. Gone but never forgotten.

Ruth, Raymond, Reba and Ralph c. 1916.

My great great-grandmother, Ruth Cash Tucker Campbell with her three eldest children, Ralph, my great-grandaddy, Gordon Raymond and Reba Odessa. Ruth was the youngest of all my great great grandparents and was younger than several of my great grandparents on my mother's side.

Born in Amherst Co. Virginia in 1889, Ruth married Gordon 'Homer' Campbell in 1909. After 1916, Ruth and Homer moved to Lynchburg where Homer started a number of successful stores. In 1929, their only daughter, Reba died at the age of 14 after a long illness. The depression hit Homer hard and he was forced to move the family down to Pittsylvania Co. Va, where he took up the life of a share-cropper. At the time of her death in 1974, Ruth had been widowed for 24 years and buried two of her children, her eldest, Ralph, having died in 1971.

Nan as a Fairy.

My grandmother, Joan Walton Flagg Campbell, as a girl. She remains, a decade after her death, a fiber of my being, and a light in the darkness for me. My love.

My Mom and Her Mom c. 1968.

A photobooth strip, likely taken on a family vacation in New Jersey, of my mom and grandmother. Photobooth pictures are so classic and this one has all the features that make them so. My grandmother's glasses are just great and my mom looks so happy.

Grandma.

My Grandmother, Evelyn Marie Todt Bennett, to the far left. Pictured as a teen in the late 1930's with her sister Rita, center, and a friend. I love how much she looks like my mother in this picture.