In the Southern United States, questions like, “Who are her folks?” have always been popular. Such questions are often used jokingly now, as satire of the Old South. But the truth is that family—extended family—was an important part of the structure of culture. Cultural structure is much more complex than just family relationships, but that was and is part of the structure. The cultural structure includes the racial division, but there is internal structure in both the black and white sub-cultures. Wayne Flynt has capably described the structure that exists within the white segment of Southern culture, in discussions of the popular book, To Kill a Mockingbird, notably in his eulogy of the author, Harper Lee.[1] In his analysis of the book, he shows that there are cultural differences between the family of Atticus Finch, the small-town lawyer, and the Cunningham’s, the salt of the earth respectable country people. But then there are the Ewells, “the undesirables who joined the KKK and lynch mobs. William Faulkner epitomized that class in his short story Barnburners. Harper Lee herself may have just taken for this structure for granted as a part of reality. But she captured it beautifully, and I believe that it was part of the art of her writing. Her writing exposed the fallacies of the belief system that confirmed that structure.
Miss Dee was justly proud of her southern heritage, and it will be appropriate to describe her family and the community structure of which she was a part. Although it would be totally impossible to recreate in words the family and community structure in which she was nurtured well over a hundred years ago, perhaps we can recapture some feel for the environment.
In the previous essay, A Challenging Childhood, I described Miss Dee’s immediate family. And in the essay Introducing Mary Christine De Bardeleben, I described her relationship to Mrs. Lightfoot. And I have mentioned churches that were an important part of her childhood community. But my research into Miss Dee’s family and description of the community that produced her is not complete and I hope to supplement this section. Help from any reader who happens to have information will be appreciated.
[1] Mockingbird Songs, Wayne Flynt (2017)
I have included this post, although incomplete, in order to describe the broad outline of the life of Mary Christine De Bardeleben. I plan to develop it further. I would welcome any information that anyone has dealing with this part of her life.
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