Chapter 6

I was upset and couldn't sleep. While I was out, Karen had gotten her things and left the house. She left the keys to my house, and I mailed the car title to her parents' house.

Leon had an exam left and planned to fly to Summerdale after his exam. We talked briefly before he went to sleep.

At eleven, I called and had the Aero Commander moved and fueled. Just before midnight, I flew out of the University's airfield. The night air was clear and cool. It felt good to be into the air. I had declined Lib's invitation to stay at Lauderdale. I needed time alone.

I landed at Fairhope and drove to the bayhouse, where I sat on the porch and grieved. I went to bed about two-thirty. About six, I walked around the neighborhood, had a bowl of cereal and went back to bed. I woke a little after noon, ate and went to the golf course. I hit a bucket of balls on the driving range and walked nine holes. I got a cart and rode the back nine. My score was well over one hundred, but I didn't let playing poorly upset me. When I got back to the bayhouse, I returned a call from Lib, fixed a lemonade and sat on the porch.

At dusk, I walked around the park and went to bed. I got to sleep fairly quickly and slept through the night. I got up early, walked to the golf course, where I hit a bucket of balls and walked back. I didn't want to talk to anyone or go out to Summerdale; I wanted to be alone. On the walk back from the country club, I stopped at the marina and bought a used sailboat. I arranged to have it taken out of the water and walked home.

After I ate, I changed into work clothes and went to the back to the marina. I polished and buffed the boat, then sailed to the bottom of the bay and back. I enjoyed sailing her. She was a fairly nice boat, much better than what I could rent to sail.

I ate supper at the Grand Hotel. Every day I walked, golfed, sailed, and read my next semester's law texts. The break between semesters ended more quickly than I wanted. I wasn't looking forward to returning to the house in Tuscaloosa and its reminders of Karen. On the way back to Tuscaloosa, I overnighted at Lauderdale and then returned to the University for the start of classes.

My first semester grades were about where I expected them to be; my rank in class was between the top third and top quarter of the class. I was confident I could do as well I needed to do. I didn't want to call attention to myself. I didn't need to be in the top ten percent of my class. I applied to Columbia to attend summer school as a visiting student. I also put in an application to be a visiting student for the fall and winter terms. Leon applied for training to become a nurse practitioner at Columbia Medical School and made backup applications at two other New York schools.

I reserved one of our brownstones near the Columbia campus for the summer and next year. I settled into a routine in Tuscaloosa: I exercised every morning, read and reviewed material before class, transcribed the day's lecture tapes, read the next day's assignments, played golf, and relaxed in the Jacuzzi. My approach to everything was mechanical and avoided emotional issues. I ate lunch with Randy and socialized briefly with a few others in my small section, but I didn't date or participate in the fraternity. I went to New York every other Thursday on a nonstop United flight from Birmingham.

Jane and Thornton handled First National, Eunice handled the Alabama radio stations and WAPI TV, Hub took care of St. Joe, and National Life handled Nashville as before. I concentrated on law school and Jenkins bank and, to a lesser extent, the law firm. The redemption of the outstanding shares of First National with certificates of deposit had gone amazingly quickly, and after the bank became privately held, Dorothy became more active with First National's real estate holdings. Though she was busy, I visited Freddy and Howard once or twice a week. The semester went surprisingly quickly.

At Columbia, I was accepted as a visiting student, and Leon was accepted in the nurse practitioner program. We prepared for a summer in New York. I went to Lib's send off for Libby and Pris, who were going to Paris again. Beau was going to Philadelphia for another summer with Will. Beau and Libby were engaged with the date set for soon after Libby graduated.

I switched the normal sequence of third year electives and second year required courses. I planned to take two summers and a full year of securities law courses at Columbia. Columbia had the best securities law program in the country, and I wanted to take full advantage of their classes. Though many of the courses were LLM courses, I could take them. I wasn't interested in the LLM degree, only the subject matter of the courses and credit I could transfer toward the JD at Alabama.

When I wasn't in class in Columbia, I was most often in the Wall Street offices of Jenkins. On the Friday evenings I flew to the Vineyard, I spent Friday afternoon at Roselawns going over the automation project. At the Vineyards, I relaxed and played the guitar.

I took a full summer load to complete the prerequisites so I could take the advanced securities law classes offered during the regular terms. During the fall and winter terms, I planned to take fewer classes and spend more time at the firm. I worked hard in summer school at Columbia and felt I more than held my own. I was at the top of my class in all my securities courses. Between the summer and fall terms, I went to Lauderdale. I ate plain cooking, as well as Libby and Lib's preparations from their Cordon Bleu training. Hub completed a large greenhouse where he planned to grow fresh vegetable year round.

It had been a good summer for many of my friends. Beau had another good summer with Will. We didn't talk much about Will or Brooke. Will still blamed me for Grandfather's estate distribution and I didn't want to put Beau in the middle. Not surprising to me, Libby was the top student in her class in the University of Mississippi's finance major. She prepared to follow in her mother's footsteps in banking and followed in Lib's footsteps caring for Beau. Three summers at the Cordon Bleu prepared her well for the food Beau liked best.

At the University, Dorothy did so well in the MBA program, the dean encouraged her to continue in the DBA program, which she did. Her major was finance, but her specialty was real estate, not banking. Randy's wife, Murphy, worked for Dorothy cataloging First National properties. Freddy and Murphy's daughter had a great time playing while Murphy worked. Howard grew steadily. Dorothy's household was under the watchful eye of Sally.

Hub worked full-time on St. Joe and loved every minute of the work. Lib couldn't have been happier with the way it worked out for him. St. Joe's headquarters moved from Jacksonville to Meridian. I enjoyed being a part of Hub's blossoming. Mississippi State's Forestry School was renamed the Herbert Lauder School of Forestry. Naturally, St. Joe funded a lot of research at Mississippi State, but Auburn got its share, also. Auburn was especially active with the St. Joe woodlands in the Florida Panhandle and South Georgia. Hub and I took nothing out of St. Joe. Every penny of profit was reinvested in woodlands, mills, and research. Hub found it satisfying that St. Joe was the main driver for economic development in rural central Mississippi.

When Lib exchanged her shipbuilding interests to expand Lauder's media holdings, she became the CEO of the media holding group. She shaped them up quickly. She was an active CEO. She became the Katharine Graham of Mississippi.

Summerdale and Barin were doing well. Barin developed extensive electronic aircraft support programs and FCC licensing radio transmission training programs. Summerdale added the community college's LPN and RN nurses training programs to their paramedic training program. The statewide system of veteran centers in college towns and the counseling centers were administered by veterans from Summerdale.

Ania and Linda were not moving ahead much, and Richard's painting business wasn't doing well. Linda and Richard had converted enough units in Gulf Shores that they saturated the rental market. They had enough projects at Summerdale to keep them afloat, but that was about it. Ania met and was engaged to an attorney, and they formed a real estate company. She concentrated on appraisals, and his primary areas were real estate financing, closing and title insurance. She continually searched for renovation opportunities for Linda and Richard. I purchased enough artsy renovation and improvement project properties in central Fairhope to keep them occupied.

The expansion of the auto dealerships in Baldwin County took longer to payback than forecasted, but each location was profitable and preempted others from moving into the market. Billie provided some opportunities for veterans to work as mechanics.

With her foreign credits and an overload class each semester, Libby could graduate in the spring, the same time Beau graduated from law school. Dorothy was in the first year of two years of course work on her DBA. Leon would finish his nurse practitioner program at the end of the summer, when I finished my year as a visitor at Columbia Law School. I had to return to Alabama for my final year of law school.

Except for my personal life, everything was going better than expected. Columbia's advanced securities classes seemed easier than the summer term securities foundation classes. The classes gave me a greater appreciation of Bernie. She and I were able to 'push' Henley, or maybe stimulate and encourage him. Becky lobbied me, and I authorized her to employ some displaced women attorney friends of hers to work part-time.

I missed the personal intimacy with Carolyn but was glad she and Hank fit well. I saw her frequently at the office. Becky and Carolyn worked well together. Becky assisted with the abandoned displaced homemakers program, a Jenkins firm pro bono project, and enlisted the help of a couple of her women attorney friends to work with her. Carolyn convinced me to let her have a block of time for a call in morning radio program on WPAT-FM that provided legal advice and counseling advice to women. Carolyn and Becky also worked with a shelter for abused and battered women.

Henley, Becky, and Bernie implemented a plan for transition of some practice areas within Jenkins and Jenkins, the first completed transition was in the governmental bond area practice. Jenkins and Jenkins got enough savings from Becky's part-timers and Henley's program to pay for Becky, Bernie, and the part-timers. Bernie had a different group of trained women about ready to take over most of the work in the utilities bond area. As Jenkins and Jenkins attorneys retired, the new structure was able to replace their output without lessening the quality of the advice. It worked better than I expected. I was pleased.