Flowers Out of Bone (12)

Flowers Out of Bone by Ethel Morgan Smith Chapter 1 Flowers Out of Bone (12)             “Yes. Lurleen B. Wallace, only forty-one when she died from cancer. Her husband couldn’t run for governor anymore; he had exceeded the law. So they ran her. She died after a year in office in 1968, a little bit … Read more

Flowers Out of Bone (10)

Flowers Out of Bone by Ethel Morgan Smith Chapter 1             Surely there must’ve been some joy in my childhood. It’s hard to imagine that anybody could grow up without something other than mutilated memories. But in spite of, maybe because of, growing up in the segregated South, I had succeeded by earning a scholarship … Read more

Flowers Out of Bone (8)

Flowers Out of Bone by Ethel Morgan Smith Chapter 1 Flowers Out of Bone (8)             Soon after Big Mama moved in with us, Beauty mustered up enough courage to kick Mr. Tex out of the house and out of our lives. He was her third husband, my sister’s daddy, and everybody’s disappointment. A tiny … Read more

Flowers Out of Bone (5)

Flowers Out of Bone by Ethel Morgan Smith Chapter 1             I love wearing Big Mama’s pearls. I run my finger around the rough edge of the faded beads hanging around my mint-colored silk blouse. I should’ve dressed more causal. Don’t they want to see the life I’ve built for Emma and me? How we … Read more