FAMILY TIES 

Kissin’ Kin  - Part II

What do the “King of Soul,” a television nightly news anchor, an iconic Southern Gothic  female author, a Supreme Court justice, a United States senator’s wife have in common?  Well, I will tell you who they are and who their kissin’ kin were.  

For decades, there has been a legend around these parts that the “King of Soul” married a woman from Montrose, Georgia.  Born into a share cropping family, Velma Warren was born in northeast Georgia.  In the decades of the mid 20th Century, Velma and her family lived on the Cook place southeast of Montrose according to the late Rev. James L. Brown, who also hailed from the community.  Velma and her family moved back to her birthplace.  It was there that she met and married another James Brown.  You know him as James Brown - “The King of Soul.”

John began his journalistic career as a general reporter for the Dublin Courier Herald while he was attending Dublin High School..  His family lived on Bellevue Avenue in a home which was located in the side parking lot of Bubba's Tire Center. After his graduation from Dublin High School, Couric worked for his university's publications and graduated in 1941 from Mercer University in Macon, where he later worked as a reporter for the Macon Telegraph. John joined the U.S. Navy during; World War, serving in both the Mediterranean and the Pacific .As a political reporter, Couric covered the always fascinating Georgia politics and the activities under the golden dome in the state capital for the Atlanta Constitution.. He was an editor with United Press before leaving his position to enter the field of public relations, working as Chief Writer; Manager of News and Publications.

John’s daughter, Katherine Ann, was  a television host at all of the Big Three television networks in the United States, and also worked for CNN early in her career. In 2021, she appeared as a guest host for the game show Jeopardy!, the first woman to host the flagship American version of the show in its history.  Katherine, or Katie, was most popular for her work on the “Today Show,” and the NBC Nightly News.  Of course, you know her as Katie Couric, a pioneer in female television journalism. 

Marguerite Waters lived in Dublin in the latter years of the 19th Century.  She married Lamar Smith, a jeweler.  In 1917, the couple gave birth to a daughter Lula, in Columbus, Georgia.  As Lula grew up, she developed a love for writing, especially short stories, plays, poems and essay.  Her work was characterized as “Southern Gothic.”  

Many of her novels were made into plays and then into movies. She is best known for , The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940),  The Member of the Wedding (1946),  The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951.) Many know her works largely by their film adaptations. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was adapted as a film with the same title in 1968, with Alan Arkin in the lead role. Reflections in a Golden Eye was directed by John Huston (1967) and starred Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.  Lula wrote took  her middle name as her first name.  She is Carson McCullars.

Laura Jane Snider was named the prettiest girl in the 8th grade of Dublin Junior High School  in 1939.  The immensely popular ingenue married the equally popular, Lt. Blakely Parrott.  Tragically, Lt. Parrott lost his life when his plane crashed in Luxembourg in January 1945.

Late in life in 1971, she married former Georgia governor Marvin Griffin. Governor Griffin ran Georgia during the 1950s and early 1960s, during the great tumult of the begins of the Civil Rights movement.

Bonnie was born in Dublin, Georgia during the Korean War while her father was serving in the military during the Korean War.  Her family moved to Warner Robins, where she attended high school at Northside.  Bonnie majored in Special Education at Georgia State University.  She taught kindergarten and four different grades in elementary and middle school. 

She and her husband married in 1972 and will be celebrating their golden anniversary later this year.   This year will be another important year in her life as her husband, David Perdue, a former United States senator, attempts to be one of the few people who have been a Georgia governor and a member of the United States Senate.

Mrs. Alex Moffett of Dublin had a smart and forward looking brother in law.  His name was Joseph Le Conte.  Le Conte was a physician, geologist,   and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and an early California conservationist. In 1874, he was nominated to the National Academy of Sciences.  He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1892, and of the Geological Society of America in 1896.  Le Conte is also noted for his exploration and preservation of the Sierra Nevada of California, United States. He first visited Yosemite Valley in 1870, where he became friends with John Muir and started exploring the Sierra. He became concerned that resource exploitation (such as sheepherding) would ruin the Sierra, so he co-founded the Sierra Club with Muir and others in 1892.  He was a director of the Sierra Club from 1892 through 1898.   

M.C. was born in the northern part of Laurens County, Georgia, most likely in the area around Lovett.  In the late 1948, Thomas married Leola Williams.  In 1948, Leola gave birth to a fine son.  Just two years later, M.C. Thomas left his family in Pin Point, Georgia near Savannah while his family lingered in abject poverty.  Fortunately for M.C.’s sons  moved in with their maternal grandparents,  Myers and Christine Anderson.

The abandoned son, Clarence, using the advantages that he received from his grandparents, finished high school, went to law school, and graduated with a law degree in 1974.   He worked his upward in the Federal judiciary.  In 1991, President George H.W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States.  After a bitter confirmation fight, Justice Clarence Thomas of Georgia became the second African-American justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In a previous article, you learned that Shaquille O’Neal, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Ty Cobb, Georgia governor, U.S. Senator, and 1860 presidential candidate Herschel V. Johnson, President Bill Clinton, and First Lady Rosalynn Carter had connections to Laurens County. And yet, there are more to come in the next installment.