Kate Betterton

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Hi Pat, Your stories were fascinating, and rang a bell. I looked in my Majesty of the Mississippi Delta book and found Mount Helena--a lovely property. There are several photos of it in the book (which I got at Turnrow Books in Greenwood). I'd love to take a road trip sometime just to meander through the Delta visiting some of these places. The PBS program about the duel sounds excellent. I hope it will be run sometime on the North Carolina PBS station, since I'm in Chapel Hill now. Thanks! and all the best--Kate

Kate, I enjoyed looking at your website and appreciate that you are interested in the Delta. Have you heard the story about the "Bride of Annandale"? Her name was Helen Johnstone. She was set to marry Henry Grey Vick in May, 1859 when she would turn 20, but instead of a wedding, there was a funeral as Vick died in a duel at Mobile, AL three days prior to their wedding date. His casket arrived on the same river boat as the caterers for his wedding! Vick willed his fiancee 3 sections of land called "Vickland", still a working plantation today in Sharkey County. A few years later, Helen's new husband, Rev. George Harris, built a home on an Indian Mound near Rolling Fork and called it Mont Helena (both the home and the plantation). That home is one of the landmarks of Sharkey County, Mississippi and has not been lived in by its owners since 1930 when Dave Low and his wife Sarah died leaving 6 children orphans. The eldest of those children was my mother, Olie Louise Low. The Low descendants still own Vickland today, their grandfather having bought it from Helen Johnstone Harris herself in 1915. The story of the Vick duel (with James Stith, a childhood friend of Vick's) is going to be played on Mississippi Public Television, a program called "Mississippi Roads" on July 28 at 7:00 pm. Quite a story ... and begs to be told well. You can contact me if you so choose at indygrandma@hotmail.com (I am a genealogy and history NUT) ... Thanks! Pat Iverson Roundup, Montana

Alec, you're welcome! Thank you for the use of your terrific aerial views of the river and lake; there's nothin' better than flying over that exquisite patchwork of fields in a little plane....I made up a song when I was 16 that you might enjoy: "She flew up in an airplane, smoking her sweet cigarette; She flew up in an airplane, smoking her sweet cigarette; She flew up in an airplane, and she ain't been heard from yet!" Best, Kate

Hi Kate... The photo is great... Thanks for the publish... Check the GHS'67 web site... There are several more photos of the Greenville/River Area... www.greenvillehigh67.com Enjoy, Alec

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