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| Viola Jefferson Goode Liddell |
The latest issue of Alabama Heritage magazine contains a
great feature article related to Wilcox County that many readers of The
Progressive Era will find very interesting.
Titled “Viola Jefferson Goode Liddell and the Wilcox Round
Table,” this 10-page article by history professor Tennant McWilliams describes
the impact of dinner meetings of “smart people” held at the home of Liddell and
her husband, William “Will” Lithgow Liddell. The vast majority of these
gatherings took place on Saturday nights between 1936 and the early 1970s at
their home, the Bagby-Liddell House on Broad Street in Camden. During these
sophisticated dinner parties, which were held eight or nine times a year, the
group discussed a wide variety of topics, including literature, politics, the
changing South and the future of Alabama’s Black Belt.
Members of Viola Liddell’s family and other Wilcox County
residents mentioned in the article, most of whom are now deceased, include her
brother Robert Goode of Gastonburg, her first husband Oxford Stroud, her sons
Oxford Stroud Jr. and Will Liddell Jr., her daughter Laura Liddell, Lena Miller
Albritton, Latin teacher Annie Brice Miller Bonner, J. Miller Bonner, Sarah
Bonner, Hugh Ervin, Stanley and Mary Harris Godbold of Camden, county social
worker Mary Emma Harris, former Wilcox County superintendent of education Bill
Jones, Robert and Helen Burford Lambert, Edith Morgan, preacher Ren Kennedy,
literature professor Emmett Kilpatrick, planter and Confederate veteran John
Kilpatrick of Camden, John and Clyde Purifoy Miller, restaurant owner Laurine
Stroud and Richebourg Gaillard McWilliams of Oak Hill.
Others in the article said to have taken part in the “Wilcox
Round Table” meetings include journalist Philip Cabel, writer Carl Carmer, historian
Charles Davis, social scientists John Gillin and Alfred M. Hero Jr., photographer
Arthur Rothstein, social scientist Morton Rubin, writer Archibald Rutledge, social
scientists Robert Sonkin and Olive Stone, and other unnamed “Hollywood types.”
The article also explored Viola Liddell’s impressive
literary career. Liddell, who died in 1998, is best known for her nonfiction
memoirs “With a Southern Accent” (1948), “A Place of Springs” (1979) and “Grass
Widow: Making My Way in the Great Depression” (2004). Most of these books are
based on her life in Wilcox County, including her younger years at Gastonburg
as well as her life during the Great Depression and during the Civil Rights era.
Her books of poetry included “Recollections in Rhyme” (1944), and you can also
purchase “The Collected Works of Viola Jefferson Goode Liddell,” which was
published posthumously in 2003.
The Alabama Heritage article provides a lot more information
about Viola Liddell and the individuals mentioned above, and I highly recommend
that anyone interested in local history take the time to find a copy of the
Fall 2016 issue and read the entire article. You won’t be disappointed because
Tennant McWilliams does an excellent job of providing a lot of information in
the relatively short space of 10 pages. The article also includes a number of
outstanding photographs, including pictures of Will and Viola Liddell; Viola
Liddell with her cat, Whitey; Arthur Rothstein; Emmett Kilpatrick; the
Bagby-Liddell House as it looked in 1936; and several others.
In the end, the Alabama Heritage article left me wondering
if Viola Liddell should be considered Wilcox County’s most accomplished writer.
Based on the information in this recent article, I think you can make a strong
argument that she is the county’s top all-time author. I’d like to hear from
anyone out there in the reading audience with thoughts on this subject, so
please e-mail them to me at leepeacock2002@hotmail.com.
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