Thomas (Tommie) Joseph Franelich
Tommie
was born December 15, 1900 and
died from
prostate cancer in a local
hospital July 1, 1981. He was buried in Pine Crest cemetery after
services at St. Joseph's. He married his long time girlfriend Lucille
Gust (Parish) January 18, 1968, after her first husband died. My
understanding was that Tommie couldn't marry her in the Catholic church
because she was divorced, he had to wait for her husband to die, and
he did.
Tommie was a fun loving guy who always dressed well. He sported a large diamond ring (I have now), went to Mardi Gras balls regularly, and enjoyed a cigar, lit or unlit. I enjoyed his company and always looked at him as this "well dressed guy with the cigar." I can't smoke a cigar today and not think of him.
He had a distinct way of talking, and his pronunciation was truly Southern; it was a style closer to the way people talked in the 1800s than the 2000s. I didn't think of it at the time, but that was a connection through linguistics to the past. Everyone knows there is no "r" in the southern language, and, now, thinking about it, everyone in my family in that generation learned from that same alphabet missing the "r." We all know words and pronunciations evolve—meanings too—but one, lagniappe, does much duty in the different ways of being pronounced. For historical pleasure, I'll stick with "lanny-yap," as Mark Twain recognized the pronunciation during a trip to New Orleans. He wrote about it in his book Life on the Mississippi. chapter 44 "City Sights."
Once when Tommie was visiting us in Birmingham, probably for my sister's wedding, he told me, "My doctor said, ‘if you don't stop drinking bourbon and coke you are going to die,’ so now I only drink bourbon and water."
I stopped by his house once during a workday around 1979 to visit him and Lucille. The conversation moved on to his family, and then, Tommie brought out a lot of old information which he offered me to take and keep. I was working for the phone company at the time and got a beep to respond to something immediately, so I called in. It was urgent, and once I got off the phone, I said I had to leave and goodbye—I forgot to take the information. I always felt bad about my forgetfulness in my haste: he offered me some historical documents about his family and I just left them there. I hope he understood.
Rest in peace Tommie. I'm sure you are well dressed and dancing everyday while enjoying your bourbon and water with a cigar—on the other side.
Here are some pictures from his fun-loving life.
On a
fishing (Party) trip in the Gulf, standing at right; same trip with
his date, Aleta Doyle; Over the
Bay, far right
seated. A manager for Cabela's in Huntsville, AL., saw this picture on
the Franelich Collection at
Alabama Department of Archives and History's web site and asked
permission to reproduce and hang it in his store. Of course I was proud
to agree.
He lived at 753 Kentucky Street in 1941 along with his sister Edwina and brother Henry.