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Pig. SB NEWS HERALD. Panama City. ru.. Friday. Ncncmber 11. IW1Getting To Know Miss LillianGloria Spann: So Proud Of Mother NowBy EUle GreunuaNEW YORK 1NKA1 - Ooo eee. that Mas Liltiar.' Like a tonsillectomy. she's apt id cui too (9 belorc sbe coOSlcs you with ice cream‘I call her vinegar and sugar and never tOe twain t» meet says her drughter Gloria Carter Spann. laughing heauilt if somewh.it humorlessly. and vaguely resembling her broth**. the PresidentActually. just the other day she ttvs. Jliwny raid you kiww. Gloria. we were looking at pictures ol Mother uhen she was 93 and you look so murk like her And I said Jimmy il you had told me that Wfore I wrote the book Ihove wild I don I want to LOOK like her or BE like her she whoops That was Klnre she r»me aeross the bo» marked letters from India » her etosct last year Then she reread the headrots of letters Miss Lillian wrote »«* was a Peace Corps nurse near Bombay in «;•« when she was ti. and suddenly Miss Ullian wasn't yost her tdtarp-tongues mother anymore ' I did not know my mother as a person until I edited this toe* I Away From Home Letters to My Parail.V' bv Lillian Cartel publiOted by Simon and Scbastefi Now I 'm just so proud of her The tetters mode her laughGIXIRIA Carter Spann: 1 did not know my mother as a person until I edited this book.a-d cry and hurry up the raid In Plains a mile to Miss Ulliaas house, to make sure .1- was really back and see If she needed anything I wanted In wad IB her hand anS loot ’Ten years alter the lad. she had lieally grasped the physical deprivation Miss Lillian suffered: the hreneshknes* and exhaustion Irom ore/work, the heartache pjssrsg a leprous woman on the read ever/ day wh drank from mid puddles. wbjrn the coolin'! help and who just wosldn'l die.And Miss Lillian t Joy arrcoi the darkskinned pctple she rared for. who caine to care themselves for the eld ■omin with the strange white sinThose letters should be pablithed. she told Min URiX And she said wctl. iiiu really have got n sweet lately from reading them and iou din t get mad anytime like yoi used to at whit I i«v I! thcv can do that lot the rest of the family, go nghl ahead’Evnywto loves the tuck. Mrs Spam says Mus Lillian Jimmy Even her second bus tund. Waller Spann the My-Iwan and pearut larmar she's tee, married ti lor 1’ years, had a while of a time with it and tc doesn't read muchHe told me Uils thing you call a book.' she drawls delighted, it kept me up until two in the morning because 1 wanted to find out how il turns out!” And here he knew all the Ume She lights another cigarette und reheats the coffee tie SI Hegis sent up and says her life I* an open bock She's Just Gloria Spann -the publisher Muck Carter in there on the beck cover In fact, in Plains, she's Gogo .•Jimmy ealkd me (hat when I was bom He was Iwo and rookln'1 say Gloria She's Just a dirt farmer s wife who gets up at seven every day puls the three rat terriers outside and mikes breakfast, washes clothes, cleans watches some TV game shows And I go to the grocery store aCoui ten miles away in my little red Dalsun - vrnom! - which I just kn*'And she visiis with Miss Lillian and late in the afternoon she and Walter get on their moiorcvctes and «om aruund the tuck roads, communing with future and lecl mg part of thingsWe kn» nvxareyctcs and the people that ride them W» go all arouKl IS* country. Motorcycle people are so friendly, it's almost abrother Lied because other people lust don't like us. she laughs.Then there's Unk* Life, the religious brcehcrhoM sfce and Walter belong to. wtads itr diein’t really want to discussbecause she's not a prosdytlnr. It's just a family of nrople all around the cmm-try ail kinds of people, she says. wto hac cons* to the realisation that we don : Have to control ter lives God dewsMiss Llllun believer that, tco Anf Uul you ihoejld love everyone nut in spite ol uhat they are tut because of It Ami yoi shuild be just who you were meant to be and don't worry d some people don't kwe you backThere's her only child. Wiliam bat - he doesn't really come into this. she stopsWilliam. J? is serving five years to life for armed robbers' in California, bul she tole all about hitr in a mags cine once and that was eniughSUII. she did Say h*e life was an Opw took, and d Miss Lillian is suth a source of strength, she must have hulpod her cope with the situation.Let's put it this way. she sais coldly. When we were adjusting to being a President's family and having these things com* cut my mother's letters were a cons-tant strength to me Is iMt okay* Thask youA moment later, she's hop-paly colliding that she tells the tour lus Ui Plains tu slop at the big house nearby because her own «sn t feasible for the sister uf a President'Then as she explains how she lues day to day and doesn’t ever look back or ahead. Iter eyes gel salt and she says. guiMly. My son is in Jail for a purpose Maybe his lile will help other* later cn Hisbe-ng in sail turned me to God. and Ruth iCarter Stapleton i. Hu. and every day I get hundreds of letters and phone ralS from pe*f* who ssy. I never thought I coutd hie through having a son m *11 until I read that you did tcoShe'S Gogo. whose door Is always open lo anyone, any time, and who leaves cvcrylhing lo God. Whooping again, she*018. whoever she may be!
Newspaper Details
Panama City News Herald
Panama City, Florida, US
Fri, Nov 11, 1977
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Susun W.
USA 25 Jul 2017
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