Mr. Jennings Carter, by Kerry Madden

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Jane Ellen Clark, the curator at the Monroe County Heritage Museum, told me that I had to interview Jennings Carter, the likely inspiration for Jem Finch, since Carter, his cousin, Truman Capote, and Harper Lee played together constantly as children. She said she got chills the first time she met him because she noticed that his arm was broken in the same place as Jem's arm.

We met Jennings Carter in Clark's office, and like she said, his left arm hung shorter and seemed to be at a ninety-degree angle to his body. He had a shy smile and right away said, "I don't know what I can tell you that hasn't been said."

I asked about the games he'd play with Truman and Nelle. He said the Truman and Nelle loved to read the comics with Truman's elderly cousin, Sook, and sometimes Sook would get the word wrong, but she never minded if they corrected her. Jennings said that Sook did send a fruitcake to President Roosevelt, but that he never wrote back.

"I imagine the White House must get a lot of presents at Christmas," Jennings smiled. "We were in a dry county, but Jenny kept the best whiskey in the house. Sook never had to go to the bootlegger the way Truman said."

He talked about the apple tree that divided the Lee and Faulk properties. "Jenny Faulk (where Truman lived) and Nelle's mother shared a border in their yards. An apple tree was on that border. Each claimed the apples and would kick them into their own yards."

Carter said that Nelle was just another kid. "We didn't even know she was a girl. She was courageous.  She would ball up her fists and hit you like a man."  He and Truman used to go riding on a mule, and when I asked the mule's name, he said with a grin, "Nelle."

I asked him about his arm, and he said he broke it falling off a roof when he was twelve.  He said that when they were kids that Saturday sometimes meant a double feature.  Sook would give Nelle, Jennings and Truman "Jenny's store money" for the movie (a dime each).  Jenny also was an artist but her drawings burned in a house fire.  Carter said, "The fire was on the coldest night of the year." I couldn't help thinking it was like Miss Maudie's fire. 

Tomorrow: A.B. Blass and the Christmas Parade and the KKK.

Kerry Madden, Harper Lee: Up Close, Viking Children's Books, Penguin Books