Someday... You'll Know!: The Lifetime Search For My Father

By Richard L. Hartness

About the Book:

This little work is a book about family history. It is also the story of a near-tragic love affair.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Writers Branding LLC
• Release date: Aug 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781639451159

Book preview

Ebook_cov.jpg

Contents

REVIEWS

REVIEWS (Continued)

FOREWORD

SOMEDAY YOU’LL KNOW PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

WHERE ARE YOU, DAD?

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

EPILOGUE

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Other books and booklets by Richard L. Hartness, Sr.:

Naming a Confederate County, Cross County, Arkansas, 1862-1873 (1973);

An Opportunity of a Lifetime by T.A. Bedford, Jr. (1904), (edited/ reprinted 1975);

A Postal Directory: The Cross County, Arkansas, Area, 1826-1975 (1975);

Wittsburg, Arkansas, Crowley’s Ridge Steamboat Riverport, 1848-1890 (1979);

Wittsburg, Wynne, and Points Nearby (Combined reprint of all the above 2009);

The Circle, Coping With Integrated Life at Arkansas State University (2016).

To: Dick B. Ethridge (1913 – 2005)

Someday came! Thanks, Mom!

REVIEWS

The title, Someday You’ll Know, leads one to want an answer. Know what? Oft times, circumstances prompt a parent to give that answer. I knew Richard all his growing up years. Everyone had a lot of respect for him and his mom. As I read the story, I was excited about learning more. Of course, all the local names were friends of the White family and patrons of White Brothers Supermarket. I am proud that he pursued his father’s identity. You may be surprised by what he found and encouraged to keep on digging for your own family secrets.

Maxine White, Executive Secretary June 2020

Wynne Rotary Club, 1986 - Present

REVIEWS (Continued)

Richard Hartness’s Someday You’ll Know offers an intriguing exploration of one of the most significant elements of his life history as it chronicles his search for his father and how a mystery is connected to his own identity. Hartness begins the story with a poem that displays his longing to know about a missing piece of his life. His sense of loss is merged with a strong desire to piece together a story that is foundational to both his early experiences as well as his sense of himself as mature man. The book is not a full autobiography although significant chapters are autobiographical. Neither is the book an historical study although the story that unfolds opens up poignant details about an historical era that has long-since passed. In many ways, this book can be seen as fitting into an approach of writing that blends autobiography, social history, and heritage studies using an approach termed autoethnography.

As an autoethnography, Hartness uses his own experiences and a piecing together of his own life history to illustrate wider cultural dynamics and ways of experiencing both the past and the present within cultural contexts. The story reveals cultural values during the World War II era and a complex account of ways that caring individuals could construct useful fictions to resolve challenging problems. Hartness’s own story is unique, but readers will gain insight into beliefs and attitudes from a different era of society that have wider resonance to American history and culture.

The autoethnographic approach continues to work well as Hartness pieces the past events together and then extends his search for his own identity into the present. The book shows ways that families can build and sustain connections and use their stories and rituals to bring closure and healing in individual lives. Originally, the family connections were hidden, but present in the stories and artifacts of the past. Hartness’s quest to piece the story together in a meaningful way reveals the importance of discovering, telling, and sharing his own story within an extended family that he never knew had existed.

Gregory Hansen, Ph.D. June 2020

Professor of Folklore and English

Arkansas State University

FOREWORD

By: Ida Margaret (Wells) Howell

Richard Hartness gathered information about his parents, especially his father, through careful research, which included old letters, telephone calls, interviews, and even DNA testing. Richard’s mother raised him. When he asked about his absent father, she would answer, Someday you’ll know! There were no pictures of his father in Richard’s childhood home, and no mementos left behind by his father. Curious citizens’ questions about his father heard the answer, he went off to war and never came back.

Richard relates the almost 50-year search for answers to his questions. As he grew into a young man in Wynne, Arkansas, he encountered many men whom he respected and admired. He wondered if his father shared some of the same desirable qualities seen in these men.

Sometimes when he analyzed newly discovered facts, they led to mistaken conclusions. However, if a clue led in the wrong direction, he discarded it and sought new information. An unusual wartime romance is also a part of this story.

I enjoyed reading this interesting and well-written book. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in family history. I learned that Richard Hartness and I share the same Cazort great-grandparents. Richard was born the same year as my husband and I. My husband, J. T. Howell, MD, and Richard were in the same class at Wynne High School. Unknown to Richard at the time, three other contemporary Wynne students, Bettie, Roberta, and Malone Vaughan were Cazort descendants as well.

Ida Howell June 5, 2020

SOMEDAY YOU’LL KNOW

PREFACE

I searched for my father for nearly fifty years. As the new century began, the puzzle began taking shape. In 2002, I discovered the last piece. Even then, fitting it all together was a mystery. Three individual characters created socially acceptable performances in various scenes on America’s World War II stage. As they skillfully manipulated friends, family, business associates, and public officials, their version of the story seemed authentic. The truth was different.

As I shared snippets of the story, listeners suggested different publishing methods. Though several individuals encouraged publication, I was reluctant for two very good reasons:

At the time, Mom and my father’s widow were still living.

Revelations intentionally hidden by one and completely unknown by the other would have emotionally affected both.

Along the way, I discovered an older brother. Initially, we agreed not to tell our mothers. I didn’t; he did. His mother found the position of stepmother, embarrassing, awkward, and unwanted. Sadly, she verbally condemned my existence and chose not to meet me. You can understand why; I sure do. Her financial advisor suggested a background investigation. Was it done? What did he discover? My older brother, deeply concerned about his aging mother’s mental, emotional and physical health, requested I delay publication. This book in your hands means I kept my promise.

Disallowed by time, place, and circumstance, I never met the two main male characters. Mom protected our maternal extended family, others, and us through less than full disclosure of the whole truth. Her peers–the aging, supporting characters in this American Greatest Generation drama–were rapidly exiting the stage. It was time to begin a serious search for facts.

Interviews, correspondence, a memory book, a diary, legal documents, newspapers, photographs, memoirs, and other sources provided details to construct her untold story. Footnotes are rare, except for informative data. Critical source references are in the narrative, in captions and credits to the illustrations, or as appendices.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As you read, you will meet many whose valuable input helped reassemble various puzzle pieces. Identification of some individuals is given, others are not. Solving the mystery would have been impossible without their contributions. My heartfelt thanks go out to each one, identified or not. Please understand, this endeavor is a tribute, you might say memorial, to both my parents and their wartime acquaintance whose name I bear.

I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge the valuable assistance, constructive criticism, and advice of those members of academia on selected early chapters. It helped make this story flow. My thanks to Dr. Gregory Hansen; Dr. Katarzyna Lecky (now at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA); and Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch of Arkansas State University, as well as Mrs. Bridget Hart-McElroy, a retired English teacher in Wynne, Arkansas.

Kim Murphy, Kim Murphy Photography, Wynne, Arkansas, graciously assisted with digital image preparation. As I chose digital images added to those of my mother and grandmother’s collections, I am indebted to Sarah Harkins, Beth Leonardt, and Nichole Lambert for their willingness to share