Sen. Robert C. Byrd plays the Grand Ol' Opry

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

My favorite clip of my senator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTL4lec5H50&feature=player_embedded

[Angry Dragon]

1. self delete

[KarenS]

2. Thank you for posting this,,,,

RIP Senator Byrd.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

3. Cornelius Sale, aka Robert Byrd, plays with Appalachian soul

Senator Robert C. Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in 1917. When he was one year old, his mother died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic. In accordance with his mother's wishes, his father dispersed the family children among relatives. His father was a member of the KKK.

Cornelius was given to the custody of an aunt and an uncle, Vlurma and Titus Byrd, who renamed him Robert Byrd. They raised him in the coal-mining region of southern West Virginia. His parents inculcated Byrd in "the typical southern viewpoint of the time," Byrd has written. "Blacks were generally distrusted by many whites, and I suspect they were subliminally feared."

Byrd graduated as valedictorian of his high school class and, in 1937, married his high school sweetheart Erma Ora. It was twelve years before he could afford to go to college.

This is from my genealogy notes. Senator Byrd and my maternal great-grandmother (one of my heroes) share the same "Sale" ancestor.