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I'm related to both Benjamin Franklin and, strangely enough, Beyonce Knowles, on my dad's side.
My dad, deceased since 1981, was married four times, to two of them at the same time. (No, they didn't know about each other.) I have a half-brother no one knew about until the late-eighties. I also have nine other half-brothers and sisters on my dad's side, of which I was the youngest. I'm sure if he hadn't died, there would have been more.
My dad was a police officer and, I learned years later, a crooked one with Louisiana organized crime connections. I always wondered why, when I was a kid, we always ate at just about any restaurant in New Iberia for free and bought new cars at the dealer's cost. And now I know!
On my mother's side, we're related to Brigham Young, one of the founders of the Mormon church. I grew up in Carthage, Illinois, just a few miles from Nauvoo, which was the site of the original Mormon settlement. Joseph Smith, the other and arguably more important founder, was "martyered" at the Carthage Jail, about a mile from where I was born.
And, no, I'm not a Mormon.
My dad, deceased since 1981, was married four times, to two of them at the same time. (No, they didn't know about each other.) I have a half-brother no one knew about until the late-eighties. I also have nine other half-brothers and sisters on my dad's side, of which I was the youngest. I'm sure if he hadn't died, there would have been more.
My dad was a police officer and, I learned years later, a crooked one with Louisiana organized crime connections. I always wondered why, when I was a kid, we always ate at just about any restaurant in New Iberia for free and bought new cars at the dealer's cost. And now I know!
On my mother's side, we're related to Brigham Young, one of the founders of the Mormon church. I grew up in Carthage, Illinois, just a few miles from Nauvoo, which was the site of the original Mormon settlement. Joseph Smith, the other and arguably more important founder, was "martyered" at the Carthage Jail, about a mile from where I was born.
And, no, I'm not a Mormon.
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