Saturday, October 28, 2017

For the first time today I found where the author of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD used the actual LAST NAME & actual PROFESSION of a person from Dothan for one of his characters in his fictional town of AVEN, ALABAMA. At the opening of CHAPTER 20, Lota Kyle visits Buck for the second time in his new mayor's office in Aven City Hall. The sound of hammering can be heard from the men working on the new police station next door. Buck liked what he saw when he met 19 year old Lota earlier and had promised to help her get a teaching job. During their conversation Lota reveals that she hasn't gone to college. Buck lets her know that lack of education disqualifies Lota for the city schools. Lota immediately becomes upset but as always Buck has a plan. Buck didn't want a beauty like Lota working in town anyway. In fact, he could have gotten her a job as a bookkeeper at the dispensary (like an ABC Store~ Dothan was the first town in Alabama to close saloons and only sell liquor from a dispensary) that was "too close." Buck calls in his city clerk and tells him to go tell the county superintendent of schools, PET TOLLESON that Buck plans on hiring one of his teachers to fill the dispensary position and that Buck has the perfect replacement (county schools did not require college education at this time) in the person of Lota. Well,  in the March 9, 1916 DOTHAN EAGLE we find that the superintendent of the county schools around Dothan at the time of this scene from DEVIL MAKE A THIRD was a Tolleson.

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