A LITTLE TALK WITH PEARLIE MAKES IT ALL RIGHT..

TO:       General Robert E. Lee, CSA
FROM: Former Chief Warrant Officer T.L. Butler, USA

I can't believe it but it's already been 143 years since you left us. For whatever it's worth, I want you to know that the old adage: "Gone but not forgotten", is as good today as it ever was and we still miss you and speak of you often.

I see you everyday as your picture sits on my mantle place at home. Mike and Sharon Rose gave that to me and even though I haven't had it framed yet, I immediately put it along side my pictures of Tim Jr and his beautiful wife, Kristin.

In addition to that, I think you would be happy to know that I still get to talk to some members of the Lee family from time to time and I want you to know that they are all doing well. You would be proud to know that they carry on with the fine traditions of the Old South and you would be very pleased to see what the Lee Family is up to at this time in our history.

Robert is an attorney and Richard is one of the best financial consultants I ever met. They have carried the traditions of the Lee family a long way and still have the fondest thoughts about you. I've shared a story about Robert and Richard's childhood with many friends but I thought you would be interested to hear one of my favorites about their Grandmother, Pearl.

I don't know when Pearl was born and I'm not sure which member of the Lee family she married but I've been to her house near Homer, Louisiana where Richard and Robert used to play when they went to visit for her birthday.

One day, roughly 55 or 56 years ago, Robert and Richard were playing in her front yard. As kids often do, they began to argue about something that typically surfaces when kids are at play. Even though Pearl was in the kitchen baking a surprise for the kids, she heard the argument that Richard and Robert were having. She walked to the front porch of that little white house, opened the door and told both Robert and Richard to stop arguing and come inside, wash their hands and sit down at the kitchen table.

As the boys were cleaning up, Pearl took the surprise out of the oven and set it on the kitchen table. I can't remember if it was a pie or a cake but I'm sure that one of the boys will read this and let me know.

In any event, when the boys saw another of their Grandmother's masterpieces, the argument became ancient history, their eyes lit up like a sparkler and Pearl began to serve them each a share of the goodies. She gave them a minute to get into the surprise and then backed off a foot or so and said: "Are you the two boys who were outside arguing and crying"?

I don't think either of them skipped a beat or answered the question as they kept on with the attack they were conducting on their Grandmother's masterpiece. I guess it doesn't matter if it was an apple pie, peach pie or a pound cake but I wanted to remember it as it may have been some delicacy that came from your days as the leader of the Lee family and I figured you would enjoy knowing.

When the feast was finished and Pearl had the kitchen table cleaned, she again looked at the boys and asked them if they were the two boys who were embroiled in the argument. I don't recall if Richard or Robert had an answer to that but I do remember that Richard told me that she gave them a statement that has lived with me since I first heard the story over 30 years back. She said: "Boys, whenever you are having an argument, just remember that: " A little talk with Pearlie makes it all right".

I don't know if those words of wisdom led Robert, who we call Bob, to become an attorney or if those words led Richard to become the consultant that he was when I first met him. Regardless of it's impact on the boys, I taught the same thing to my son and during troubled times he was having with a test or anything that comes along to cause problems in the life of a teenager, we would talk and I would repeatedly finish those conversations with Pearlie's words...."A little talk with Pearlie makes it all right".

I have a lot of other things to tell you but time is demanding that I save the story about me going to your house for later on. If you can, stand by, there's more coming and I'll include a military sit rep for you to consider.

Thanks,
Tim