January 1, 2008 @ 1206 hours




Dear Ms. Sanders,


Please	accept	my  apologies  for taking 4 months to get back to
you. I certainly did appreciate very much getting your letter and
the church bulletin for the funeral service.

My  sisters  and I have know Verla all our life. Our Mother, Vera
(Davis) Pinkstaff, borned 1912, became friends	with  Verla  when
she was living and working as a nurse for the local doctor in St.
Francisville. Verla must have been in collage at  least	 part  of
that  time.  They  were	 young single girls hanging out together.
Through Mom's friendship with Verla, our family also got to  know
Mr.  and Mrs. Hill, and they visited us often at our house out in
the country, and we would visit them at their home, with the  big
front  porch,  in St. Francisville. Mr. Hill was always giving me
some change which he had in his pocket. I have today a 22 caliber
rifle  that  Mr.  Hill	gave  Dad because we had so many sparrows
roosting in the two big trees close to the house. And not to long
ago Verla sent me one of Mr. Hill's old watches. I think she sent
my sisters, Sarah Jean and Jane, a quilt.

Verla also became friends with our Aunt	 Jean  and  Uncle  Clyde.
Aunt  Jean  was	 Mom' sister. Clyde Leathers was principle of the
school in St. Francisville during a span of  time  that	 probably
included  at  least  some  of  the  time Verla attended St. Fran-
cisville High School. Mom lived at their house while she  was  in
St.  Francisville  working a nurse, and I am sure Verla must have
come over to that house to see Mom.

One of the things I can clearly remember is being  over	 at  Aunt
Jean's	house  (We lived just across the field from Aunt Jean and
Uncle Clyde after they moved out on the farm.)	when  Verla  came
out  to see Uncle Clyde and ask him what he thought about her and
Betty investing that house in Oak Park.	 Uncle Clyde had  a  kind
of  wise  man  repitutation  in St. Francisville, and having been
principle of the high school for a number of years he acquired	a
lot of respect in the community.

Verla came to visit St. Francisville fairly often to Mom and oth-
er friends after her parents both died. Mom would always  try  to
make  butterscotch pie because that was Verla's favorate.  On one
of these visits she brought a portable radio. It was  very  large
by today's micro electronics standards, but it was the first time
I had seen one. I remember laying on  the  couch,  listening  and
seeing what local stations I could get while Verla and Mom talked
in the kitchen.

Sometime when my sisters were still in grade school they went  to
Chicago	 and  stayed  with Verla and Betty for two or three days.
They still talk about that visit today. One time when  I  was  in
Chicago visiting my best friend, Tom Hart who had moved to Tinily
Park with his family where his Dad, Nute Hart worked as a  barber
in  some mental hospital. Tom and I were old enough to drive, and
we went to 22 North Kennelworth to visit Verla and Betty.

Verla's connection to Nute and Inez Hart, my friend Tom's  Mother
and  Father,  goes back to when they were all in St. Francisville
High School together, and Neut and Inez eloped.	 Verla went  with
them  along  and She ended up contacting the preacher who married
Nute and Inez and served as one of the witnesses. Verla	 did  not
know  the  marrage  was in the works until she was in the car and
off on the adventure. Once when I was talking to Verla	when  she
was  at the assisted living facility, she told me her Mother, was
very angry with her because Verla did not tell her about the  se-
cret  marriage, and her mother did not find out until everyone in
town did.

Many memories have come back to me in the writing of this letter.
It  would  be  easy to write more, for they are all pleasant good
memories, but I will wind this up for now. I have a lot	 of  pic-
tures from my home that I salvaged, and I hope to go through them
some day. No doubt, I will find pictures of Verla and her Mom and
Dad taken when they were visiting us. I hope to put some of those
out on my WEB site, http://paulpinkstaff.com, some  day	 after	I
retire.	  If  you are into WEB stuff, and you go there today, se-
lect New Labco on the first page  and there you	 will  find  pic-
tures of the grand kids. Jane and I have two, Abby and Jake. Abby
is 2 and 1/2 and her brother is 6 months old. This  was	 quite	a
Christmas  this year.  There are lots of Christmas pictures on my
WEB site.

My e-mail is pinkstaffp@acm.org, and I would be	 happy	to  trade
some  memories	about Verla if you would like that. You know much
more about her life after the war in Chicago.

Again thanks for the letter. And again I am sorry to  have  taken
so  long  to answer your letter. I was a little disappointed that
the Verla Mae Hill life summary on the back of the  bulletin  did
not  mention  Betty, When we talked of Verla someone would always
say something that included the phrase Verla and Betty.

I will sign off as P.J. since that is how Verla	 would	have  re-
ferred to me. I go by Paul now.


Thank you again,


P.J.