LOCATION: Greenwood, MIssissippi
PERIOD: 1949-1969
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Beauchamp Raney (1917-1949); Douglas “Dougie Dog” Kinsella (1929-2000); Alice Sturgess (1919-1996)
Douglas Kinsella was bullied as a child by Beauchamp Raney, a scion of a family of moonshiners, and pretty bad character. They were distantly related, through Dougie’s maternal side, but the familes were nothing alike. Dougie is mentored by the local school teacher, and eventually goes to college and becomes a successful writer of Southern fiction.
DOUGIE DOG KINSELLA
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
When Dougie Dog Kinsella bought his book
He wrapped it in brown butcher paper
To keep anyone from grabbin’ a look
And think he was gettin’ above his raisin’
Alice Sturgess taught Dog to read
A fact that beggars belief
That’s how it started but not where it ended
Who coulda known then it was just beginnin’
We knew about the Raney family
Beauchamp Raney was a surly scofflaw
The rest was back woods moonshine people
Except for his maternal grampaw
Beauchamp was named after him
A hard shell Baptist preacher, and grim
Beauchamp’s blood took a hard left turn
His grampaw cursed him to hell to burn
Dougie was some distant kin
But while they were violent and hard
Dougie was nothin’ like them
Had a quality that set him apart
There was a look he’d get, a stare
Like he saw something in the air
What most folks mistook as simple
Alice Sturgess recognized potential
Dougie got his nickname as a child
When Beauchamp Raney would come around
Gave Dougie a dollar, stood back and smiled
Had him bay ‘n’ howl like his coonhound
As Dougie grew the name just stuck
He never acted like he cared that much
Greenwood folks saw it as more proof
That Dougie was different, a simple truth
Alice Sturgess was a widow woman
Been teaching school for more than ten years
Alice Sturgess was pretty good lookin’
Had the best farm for miles round here
Alice didn’t like to hear Dougie called Dog
She wouldn’t tolerate it at all
Alice would scowl when it was used
We all tried to do what she approved
But Beauchamp Raney was a sorry cuss
Didn’t like Alice taking Dougie’s side
He figured Alice was due her comeuppance
Beauchamp would be the one to provide
Dougie helped Alice with the chores
That was when he began his reading course
Beauchamp Raney waited for the day
When he could make Alice Sturgess pay
Beauchamp Raney started talkin’ trash
Spreadin’ gossip all over town
Late nights, the farm, Alice ‘n’ Dougie, don’t ask
Beauchamp managed to raise some eyebrows
He drove out to the farm late one night
Alice Sturgess put up quite a fight
Fought him off best she could
She wasn’t strong enough, it wasn’t good
Dougie had a cousin Lucas James
They’d played together when they were kids
Lucas knew about Dougie’s nickname
Knew all what Beauchamp Raney did
When he heard about this latest crime
Lucas swore Beauchamp would pay this time
He would call that bully out
Beauchamp Raney called to account
Every Friday Beauchamp came to town
Get likkered up and make trouble
No one wanted to hang around
He had no friends not even his own people
Lucas hid behind the fillin’ station
When Beauchamp walked by he’d be waitin’
Lucas used a pipe wrench from his truck
Beauchamp Raney never got back up
At first it was all we talked about
Most said Beauchamp got what he had comin’
The Sheriff investigated then announced
“Some fellas just needed killin'”
Alice Sturgess taught Dog to read
He went to Ol’ Miss got his degree
Dougie Dog became Douglas Kinsella
A Delta author, story teller
© 2022 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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