Secondary Character Saturday: Mama (who Makes Up Her Mind)

WHO: Mama White

FROM: Mama Makes Up Her Mind, and Other Dangers of Souther Living

BY: Bailey White

Bailey White [Image courtesy: FreshFiction.com]

PROS: Sweet, Southern, elderly lady who has a lot of experience and a lot of class.

CONS: She’s also stubborn and opinionated. (But you still love her.)

MOST SHINING MOMENT:  While Bailey White might charm you with stories of Aunt Belle and her bellowing pet alligator. Or Uncle Jimbuddy with hus appalling “knack for losing pieces of himself. ” [Amazon.com] You will “succumb utterly to the charms of Bailey’s mama, who will take you to a juke joint so raunchy it scared Ernest Hemingway or tuck you into her antique guest bed that has the disconcerting habit of folding up on people while they sleep. [Ibid]

Here’s a taste from Mama’s Memoirs…

For years we’ve been trying to get Mama to write her memoirs. she actually started once. She was writing them on old envelopes with a blue ballpoint pen. but she wold make her grocery list on the other side of the envelope, and she kept leaving her memoirs at the checkout counter of the Piggly Wiggly. [Mama Makes Up Her Mind, Bailey White]

WHY I CHOOSE HER: Bailey White is an amazing story-teller. She could spin a yarn from alphabet soup.  But she’s at her best when she pulls a story from something Mama did or said.  Why’d I choose Mama? In hopes that you’d go out and find one of White’s books and read them. You’ll be glad you did.

Other Books by Bailey White:

• Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home
• Quite a Year for Plums: A Novel 

Bailey White used to be a contributor to National Public Radio, but not so anymore. I guess she’s gone back to teaching in her first grade class room full-time. Shame. We miss you Bailey.

She lives in the same house she grew up in, now with her sister. Her mother, Rosalee White passed away in 1994.