Our family affairs were serene enough most of the time but, if you are
a crusading editor, that serenity is disturbed at times. There were two
brothers in Middlesboro, Alva and Floyd Ball. Alva was known to have killed
four men. These brothers had a great way of proving self-defense in court.
The Ball brothers had slot machine concessions and an interest in retail liquor
stores in Middlesboro, which town was wet at that time. Herndon had been
fighting the slot machines in the paper and also the retail liquor interests
as a local option election was coming up. One night about two o'clock our
telephone awoke us from a sound sleep and it was Alva Ball, who threatened
Herndon, telling him to let up on this local option election. I was never
»more frightened. I felt that one more killing would mean nothing to someone
= who had already Tilled four. Herndon tried to calm me by saying, “If a man
~ wants to kill you, he doesn't warn you, he just shoots you.“ I will not say
` that my husband was fearless because to be fearless is foolhardy, but he waS
brave and never gave an inch when a principle was involved. Bell County did
vote dry and eventually through the influence of the Attorney-General's
office in Frankfort, with Judge J. M. Gilbert working on it, the slot machines
disappeared. "
v': fc v': fc
Wally was the salutatorian of her high school graduating class. She had
made straight A's all through junior and senior high schools. She was on the
debating team. It never surprised me that she made the team as she had always
thought clearly and made me give reasons for the things I said. Once when she
was pre-school age, I said, “Brush your teeth because you are going to the
dentist." That little child looked at me and asked, 'Why do I have to brush
my teeth when the dentist is going to clean them? You don't wash your hair
before you go to the beauty parlor.“ No wonder she could debate as a teen-
ager. She was a quick thinker. When she was four we were the guests of Dr.
and Mrs. W. D. Funkhouser in Lexington. Wally picked up her spoon to eat her
pie. I said gently, ”I believe I would use my fork.“ With a big smile she
said, "Oh, I thought it was ice cream.“
She entered Sweet Briar College in Virginia in l9h2, where she had to
compete with girls from the best preparatory schools - it was a struggle.
She had spent only three and a half years in high school with no summer ses-
sions and had had less than the number of hours of foreign language required
by Sweet Briar, They had accepted her because of her excellent grades and
high recommendations. She passed her subjects but I know that she had to
work very hard.
These.were war years and PATRIOTISM was a hallowed word in those years,
but perhaps not so great as in World War I. Herndon decided he should en-
list and do his bit for his country. He went to Louisville to sign up. He
had been a second lieutenant back in l9l7-l8 in the first World War and he
felt that this experience entitled him to a much higher rank now. Besides,
he had been the highest ranking officer on the University of Kentucky campus
in R.O.T.C. following his army service. He had twenty-five years experience
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