The Principal Characters

 This photo of my older brother "Buddy,"

sister Caryn, and myself, was taken around 1960.

In the book "Mystery at the Loyd Homeplace," 

we would have been two years older: 13, 9, and 4.

"Buddy" and I are co-detectives in the family

mystery.  Caryn contributes to the story if not

to the actual solving of the mystery.

Here are Mama and Daddy, most prominent

in the opening and closing chapters of the book.

I've been told that I did a pretty good job of 

recreating characteristic conversations of both.

This is Mama and Papa Loyd, Daddy's parents

and my grandparents.  Their names are Joseph

Carl Loyd and Ethel Linnie Wright Loyd.

Most of the action of the book takes place at their 

country dairy farm and the nearby Loyd homeplace.

This photo was several years before our story takes

place and before Papa Loyd's crippling stroke in 1952.

Here are Mama and Papa Loyd on 

their 50th anniversary at Christmas 1963.

Papa Loyd loved having his family around

and lived about 12 years after his stroke.

These are Papa Loyd's parents and the

residents of the "Mystery House," the

Loyd Homeplace.  Daddy was very close

to his grandparents.  Joseph Alford Loyd

was born in 1855 and was 9 years old at the

time of the Battle of Peachtree Creek and the

Battle of Atlanta.  Mary Louvinnie Echols Loyd,

who everyone called Mollie, was a Civil War baby,

born in 1863, just a year before those same battles.

She was only 18 in this photo, he 26.  Both

seem older because of the serious demeanor,

typical of portraits of that era.

You will learn more about all of these characters

in "Mystery at the Loyd Homeplace." Additional 

information will be added to this blog from time to time.

If you haven't read the book, I invite you to

request a copy.