Papaw was the first person to ever give me a real pocketknife. He was my mother’s father, Mr. K.C. O’Kelley. He held degrees in education from Mississippi State and Georgia and a master’s ...
I suppose I can say my brother and I loved the man we knew as Papaw so much because in many ways, he so often chose to interact on our simple and carefree level years before the confusing teenage era.
Most importantly, he benefited from a buffer of generational wealth created by his “Papaw,” who retired with a “lucrative pension” from his union job at the local steel plant. In addition ...