http://ragpiano.com/comps/lwhite.shtml

Lasses White

In my analysis of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, I have described three Baker brothers as models for characters in the novel. Yesterday, I learned more about another Baker brother, Robert Chester Baker (1880-1914). Robert went by the nickname "Coon" and was eleven years younger than Buck. Coon may have been one of the models for the Bannon brother who participates in the Ku Klux Klan flogging of a prostitute in Chapter 14. In 1908, Coon was arrested and acquitted by Dothan authorities for the murder of Jack Oates, a Black drayman. Oates was apparently murdered during a flogging. Three other men were also arrested for his murder. Also in 1908, a house owned by Coon near Howell School burned and in 1915 this lot became the baseball diamond for Dothan's first professional league baseball team. From 1915 until the construction of the Rec Center in the early 1950s, the Baker Lot was an important community park for tent shows and ball games. It's full name should read the COON BAKER LOT. Coon died under mysterious circumstances in August of 1914, the same month that Reverend McNeill's parsonage was burned and Buck was accused of having the fire set to burn out the preacher who had been campaigning against Buck's restricted vice district near the intersection of Range and East Burdeshaw Streets.