Dear Austy, David, Darcie, and Ellen,
 
Joan and I want you to know that we are thinking of you in this difficult time. I want to share with you the memories and images that I will keep with me as I continue on.
 
You probably know that K, Dan, and Gwynn shared the southeast bedroom at 321. All three built flying airplane models. I recall the time the models were hung from the ceiling by thread. And on the north wall K had several pictures, colored crayon I think. I remember there was an image of the camp in Michigan that K had attended (it was something like "Lake Minnetonka")...it was like a poster of the place. Then there was a large cartoon of a cannibal's face with a bone through his nose. It was so attractive that I tried to imitate that style.
 
The biggest impact his work had on me was a drawing, in pencil, of a cowboy on a horse. It was magical to see those few strokes turn into a cowboy. I watched him do it. Then later I asked him to do another one. This was long before I thought of becoming an artist, and I have thought later on that these experiences may have steered me to it.
 
I high school he was always with a group of guys. They would come by to get him and take him somewhere ....I never knew where except the time they had set up a real baseball game at a local field. I was there and watched him out in right field. Very exciting to me to see a game with a real baseball.

I remember once, when the guys came to pick him up, they would park in the street. I don't remember them ever honking ....I think he was waiting for them on the front porch. When they showed up he would run down the sidewalk running flat on his feet, making a slapping sound that I thought was real cool and sassy. I would
do the same thing later on.  Some times his friends would come over. I remember Gus Daley and Austin Crosby, Austy's name-sake, came over to play ante-over over the main house. There also was football type playing ...which kept me on the sidelines to watch "the big guys." Later we would play Indian Ball at Robinson Grade school.
 
Now and then he would help me with my homework. As I recall, it was usually math.
 
One time I asked Monnie why K was so popular. Without hesitation she said, "He's democratic.He makes friends with everyone and doesn't just stick with the main cliques." Looking back on it, I am surprised how D responded so quickly. And I'm guessing that he must have talked to her about it in some way. After I heard this I started to try to do the same thing. I made a point of establishing some kind of rapport with everybody I came in contact with at high school. I wanted to be popular. More than making good grades or excelling sports I wanted to be liked. Before I knew it I was finding friends and I found out that I became really interested in how other people felt. This was a major factor in my teaching....big empathy.
 
K played clarinet in our little Suits orchestra: Dan sax; Gwynn violin; Alan violin; Mac flute, me cello; Monnie piano. Dan was away at college and didn't show up with us much. Joanne joined us, cello, on occasion. Everret Vogt played with us once or twice....he taught Alan violin and was very good. Monnie picked out simple Bach "Sarabandes"....things we all could play.
 
K was a Freshman at Princeton when, during the war, Dad asked him to help run the laundry. K came back to work in the laundry, lived at 321 and bought his own car, a Ford. Each night he would sit before the record player and play great music. I vividly recall his sitting motionless and I would be listening too. He got his records at the St. Louis Library, downtown branch where Dad met Monnie who was working in the Art Room years previously. Now and then I would buy a classical record from the tire store on Kirkwood Road (all 78s).
That's when I first heard of Shostakovitch....and other greats who I had never heard of but who had bizarre, interesting names.
 
He married Joanne...in the Presbyterian church at the corner of Adams and Kirkwood road. They lived first on the west end of St. Louis....Cabannes Avenue I think. When he was drafted he entered Officers Training school, becoming an Army Lieutenant. Because of his laundry experience he was immediately put in charge of a laundry at

the Army base in Rome, Georgia. Joanne stayed with us. What a wonderful relationship we had. She was my first sister and she was such a gentle person! It is interesting that recent e-mails from Ellen and Darcie sound like Joanne talking.
 
When I was 15, mom and dad with the approval of Joanne's dad, Ray, suggested I drive Joanne down to Rome, Georgia to be with K. Using K's black Ford we headed down. On the way at night through the Tennessee hills the car's headlights went off when we were going down a steep hill. By luck they stayed off only a few seconds and we were okay. I haven't the faintest idea what caused it. We stopped for the night near Clarksville, Tennessee. The next day we picked up a hitchhiker...an old man. (That wasn't very prudent but in those days highway crime wasn't in the news). He was pleasant enough and said he was going to "Chattanooga."
 
We got to Rome and found the army base and laundry where K was. It was a novel experience to see him in the army uniform. I stayed a few days and returned on the train.

 After the war K and Joanne lived at 321 with us. Austy was 4 or 5. They bought the house on Curran (my chronology may be a little off) and I think Dave and the rest of you were born there.
 
Joan's and my bridge playing started on Curran I think even before we were married. After we were married, 1949, we played  with K and Joanne almost on a regular basis. We were always especially comfortable with them.
 
In 1948 I had started working at the laundry, driving a delivery truck. K and Dad made a great team. K didn't like office work and enjoyed being out in the laundry dealing with people problems. Dad ran things from his office.  As hot as St. Louis was, Dad didn't want to have air conditioning in the office. He didn't want the workers stopping at the office now and then and being felt to be second class citizens. Monnie was working there when I was. She was the Treasurer. Joan was working as a map maker at Army Map Service in one of the big buildings on 12th Street. At that time we lived on St. Louis Avenue and I would drive her to work, drop her off, and continue to the laundry. At the end of the day we would do the reverse.
 
In 1952 I got a teaching job at the U. of Georgia and left the laundry. Alan took my place driving a truck, and we would return from Georgia each summer and renew our contacts. When my boss, Lamar Dodd, visited us at 321, K invited us over to Curran Ave.    I remember Dan was there and he and Lamar talked about academia. (It was a little later that I discovered that Lamar was featured in a big article in Life magazine a year before I went to Georgia).
 
You all moved to the corner of Essex and Dickson Ave's. K and Joanne had a dinner honoring Dad's 80th birthday. Kingsley asked him to say a few words. Dad said he was fortunate that Dan, his eldest, was "cautious"....that the other boys followed his example and it developed cohesion in the family. On Essex at Dickson I remember K's churning out all kinds of inventive games. I was struck how his pencil work on the games diagrams reminded me of his drawings years earlier. That's when I met Austy's two daughters. Later, when we moved to Stephens College in Columbia Mo., Joan and I visited Austy and his wife in Westminster. I was delighted to find Austy's interest in philosophy.
 
Time passed, and we would visit Kirkwood , from Georgia, staying  with Monnie and Dad, and saw K and Joanne each summer. Years later we heard the laundry was having difficulty and would have to be sold. And then the saddest part....in 1979 Joanne and Monnie died. A terrible loss for all of us.
 
We lived in the beautiful city of Charleston, SC for two years. K came down to see us there.  In 1989 we moved to Aiken, SC and K came to see us here. As always we had a neat visit. That was the last time we saw him for a long while. And he didn't seem interested in maintaining contact. Computers and e-mail were out of the question. But he did call us on the phone to tell us about Ellen's upcoming appearance on that national TV show. It was thrilling to watch Ellen moving easily through her part. And we knew her voice...that same voice from years ago. How proud Joanne would be about this acting coup.
 
We saw him at Alan's family gathering a few years back. We chatted about politics and old times as if nothing had really changed. It was really heartwarming to see him ....bushy beard and all.

Joan and I visited Austy and his wife in Westminster. I was delighted to find Austy's interest in philosophy,
(I should add:) an interest that Dave will take on later on a grand scale.

These memories I will keep with me.
 
Best to each of you,
 
Thad