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Leon Driskell 385 Leon Driskell Leon Driskell was barely sixty-two when he died in 1995. It was a short life for one so talented—as a fiction writer, a poet, and a teacher. A native of Georgia, he earned degrees from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas. He served in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1958, and when he became a civilian again he had teaching stints at the University of Texas, Birmingham-Southern College , and the University of Cincinnati; from 1964 until his death he taught at the University of Louisville. In 1971 he coauthored with Joan Brittain The Eternal Crossroads , a book about the life and works of Flannery O’Connor. In 1983 Driskell published Passing Through, a collection of connected short stories about a colorful family in Owen County. This first selection, “A Fellow Making Himself Up,” introduces a family of Owen County citizens more believable than the real ones on the tax records. The two poems that follow are equally evocative of character and place. h “A Fellow Making Himself Up” What uncle Lester liked most about Rosco was that he had named himself, and Lester thought he had picked the perfect name. He did not look like a Ralph, or Robert, or Rupert, but exactly like a Rosco. Audrey said she did not think it was so great to be named Rosco, for she could not think of a single movie star, or even TV personality, with that name. Uncle Lester admitted that Rosco had not exactly named himself all the way, for he had started out with what his parents had decided to call him, which was R.P. White. To Lester what uncle Rosco had done was better than any story in a book, even the ones about the frog who turned into a prince or the poor boy who became Lord Mayor of London. Lester made Rosco tell him all the details many times, and even when he was a baby, or practically one, he would make Rosco go back and tell it again if he left out any part of it. Lester mostly called Rosco, Rosco—without any uncle before it—and you could tell he liked the sound of it. He had looked in the Owenton phone book to see if he could find any other Roscoes. It took him a whole afternoon to read all the first names. He found four of them, but he felt better when he called up and learned that one of them was deceased and another had moved off to Henry County. How it happened that Rosco got the name R.P. White was that he was 385 386 The Kentucky Anthology the eighth baby, and, by the time he came along, his parents had run out of names along with practically everything else. They had used up some perfectly good names on babies who had died, and Rosco said he guessed they felt funny about using the same names twice, especially since the dead children were buried a hundred yards from the front porch. Their names and dates were painted on slate stones, and they were also listed in the family Bible, which uncle Rosco said he would give a pretty to have so he could show it to Lester. Sauie Garland White / Jan 9 1902 – Feb 2 1902 (At Rest Now) Han. Leonidus White / June 11 1903 – Oct 7 1903 (God’s own) Eben. Ulysses White / Oct 30 1904 (Precious Moment) Rosco knew what all was on the stones, and he said Han. stood for Hannibal which was too long to fit on the slate, and that Eben. stood for Ebenezer. Uncle Lester was glad that Rosco did not get either of those names, but he did not say so. He had seen an Ebenezer (and an Ichabod) on TV. Rosco was stingy with nothing but words, and, with Lester, he was not even stingy with them. His hands hung a mile out of his sleeves, as Ichabod’s did, but his shoulders were broad as a barn door, and Lester could not imagine him running from a headless horseman or anything else. Lester wasn’t sure how he felt about the name Ulysses, for he knew that Ulysses was a hero and had traveled far as Rosco had, but he also knew that Ulysses was Greek— and the Greek who owned the cafe had been partly to blame for Lurline’s...

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