This is the true story of how my father became the Attorney General of Michigan which led to his ultimate goal of becoming a Michigan Supreme Justice,
He became Attorney General because his daughter Susan was a slut. It was the late fifties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Susan was cutting school and going out with colored "boys" Army people posted locally. I think there was on family of color in our small town but I never saw or met them.
So there was Susan, the only girl in town wiling to go out with these "boys." My father did what he could to discourage this; I happened to overhear him when one of the "boys" called for Susan, "Listen, I don't mind you boys coming over to the house to visit but I don't want you dating my daughter," I heard that much accidently and fled the area immediately. There were things that happened later that led me to suspect that my parents were really concerned that Susan might be having sex with one or more of these "boys." At that time Mennen Williams was Govenor of Michigan. He and my father had gone to law school together, became friends, and left their Republican heritage to become FDR Democrats.
What happened was that my father called Mennen and begged him to find him a job in Lansing to get Susan away from the situation as Susan was not much of a respecter of rules. (To put it mildly and understandable mostly to people familiar Upper Michigan in the mid-50's. One example: a teacher was fired because they found out he was gay.) Whoever had been Attorney General moved on to something else and good old boy Mennen appointed my father to fill out his term and we all moved to Lansing.
Too bad, too late. Susan was pregnant!! Among others she had been dating a young (white) Air Force person and before you could say anything the shotgun was brought out and Larry and Susan got married. All through her pregnancy I suspect they were concerned about the possible paternity of the baby. That is probably why when my father attempted to control their live and Larry told him to butt out, my father - a control freak who never listened to anybody and whose word was worthless if he "felt" like breaking it - actually butted out. By the time the baby was born his lack of control over Susan and Larry had been established. And, praise God, the baby was white. Larry might even have really been the father. Of course, everything was hushed up (which would have been difficult if Susan had given birth to a child of mixed race).
And that's the story of how my bigotted, close-minded father became the Attorney General of Michigan.
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