PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) – Juanita Hollinghead places away a set of court docket circumstances within the Greene County Courthouse.
Paperwork as soon as considered destroyed in a flood all include important details about the small print surrounding the 1921 homicide of her grandfather, former Greene County Sheriff Jacob “Jake” Inexperienced.
Hollinghead stated for a very long time, the dialog about her grandfather’s loss of life was taboo amongst her household.
“We couldn’t have fun April Fools Day, as a result of it occurred on April Fools Day,” Hollinghead stated. “We weren’t allowed to talk of it in our house. I by no means requested my father, and I used to be like his shadow.”
Even nonetheless, Hollinghead stored the urge to seek for solutions after she was instructed Inexperienced was killed whereas raiding a whiskey nonetheless within the early Nineteen Twenties through the Prohibition Period.
Her curiosity solely grew when, earlier than his loss of life, her father left a satchel containing household paperwork and heirlooms.
“When he handed away, a couple of months later, I began exploring extra within the satchel, within the paperwork, and have become the household’s historian,” she stated.
Hollinghead spent the subsequent decade-plus trying to find something that would assist her quest.
Then, she stumbled throughout a person in Perry County named Rufus Walley, whom she contacted for assist with house repairs.
However the info she’d depart with was rather more than repair her cupboards.
“He stated, “I’d get it finished as quickly as I can,’” Hollinghead stated. “Once we began to go away, he stated ‘Who do you belong to?’ I stated. ‘I’m Polly and Ruth Inexperienced from Leaksville’s youngest daughter.’
“And he received quiet. And he stated, ‘Excuse me, little woman. I must apologize to you. My uncle killed your grandfather.’”
Hollinghead stated she was surprised by that dialog.
Nonetheless, it inspired her to proceed her analysis and ultimately write her first e-book, titled “Past the Inexperienced Widow.”
“This was one thing that I had been writing on for three-quarters of my grownup life,” she stated.
At a e-book launch earlier this month, she offered Hazel Wallery, Rufus Walley’s spouse, a replica of the e-book.
“It’s been 20 years,” Hollinghead stated. “We’ve stored in contact via the years, as a result of she would at all times say, ‘Let me know when that e-book is completed.’
“Folks have been to a few of my occasions and have shared, that ‘You’ve received me , so I’m going to go analysis my historical past.’ If I wouldn’t have had that burden, this could be misplaced.”
In 2021, Jake Inexperienced’s identify was added to the Nationwide Registry for Fallen Officers–100 years after his loss of life.
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