LIST-folk;

For anyone still interested in this admittedly minor bulletin, I have
finally received a definitive response from Paul O'Neill's brother Robert,
who takes care of the Paul O'Neill homepage.  As promised, I submit it to
the LIST.  Two points:  Mr. O'Neill is himself a college English teacher !!
 Also, he has asked some questions of me about Mary Clemens, his
great-grandmother and cousin of Sam, that I think other LIST members may be
better armed to answer than I am.

Here is the note--


>Mr. Bush,

When I'm not doing this work for Paul, I teach English at a local
university.  I will change the phrasing to something like, "Mary, a relative
of Mark Twain"  It takes a while to change the content as we are extremely
busy here at the office and I have close to forty papers coming by Tuesday.
People should use words and thoughts accurately.  Do you have any hard
evidence on who this Mary was?  Her people.  I am quite sure my grandfather
played for $75 a month in 1909 in Montana because I have a newspaper
clipping announcing his departure from Ravenna, Nebraska.  The article
described Art O'Neill as a fine "batsman".   I heard she died after bearing
eight children and the oldest daughter was left to raise the children while
her father traded horses.  I've heard from my Aunt Lucy, who recently died
at ninety, that Indians would knock on the door asking for food and that the
daughter who raised the clan never had children of her own.  Big surprise.
But lore, especially the spoken mythology, does get embellished.  My own son
finds the details of my youth extraordinary and fascinating.  I find myself
feeling Homeric when he demands the same stories time and time again.  I
will have my web guy make the changes.

All the best
Robert O'Neill
~~~~~

Dr. Harold K. Bush, Jr.
Saint Louis University