RICHARD
COVINGTON. Ref:15167. Born: 1825- 1826 at North Carolina NC
Family Tree Report 03 May 2021
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Spouses, etc. appear
at the end of the report. Each individual has a Ref number within this
database, as shown next to name.
If using MS Word to
view this file, use Ctrl F and enter Ref number to move directly to next
reference for selected individual.
If a contact or picture is listed, click
on blue link to view Known offspring, listed below each
record in red text
Should you be able to update any of our
records, please e-mail to covingtonhistory@mhcovington.plus.com
GENERATION
One
RICHARD COVINGTON. Ref: 15167.
Born: 1825- 1826 at North Carolina NC. Father: not known, Father Ref: 0.
Mother: not known, Mother
Ref: 0. Mar:
22 Nov 1858 at Spartanburg, Spartanburg Co SC to Clark, Mary Susannah 15168. (Last
updated: 26/02/2009 16:31:09)
ANNA L COVINGTON. Ref: 21701.
Born 22 Aug 1860 at Rutherford Co NC. Mother: Clark, Mary Susannah, Ref: 15168
VIOLA COVINGTON. Ref: 21703. Born
16 Dec 1862 at Georgia GA. Mother: Clark, Mary Susannah, Ref: 15168
OLIVER COVINGTON. Ref: 21704.
Born 2 Jan 1864 at Alabama AL. Mother: Clark, Mary Susannah, Ref: 15168
GEORGE COVINGTON. Ref: 21705.
Born 5 Nov 1868 at Alabama AL. Mother: Clark, Mary Susannah, Ref: 15168
TETIE COVINGTON. Ref: 21702. Born
25 Jan 1870 at Morgan Co AL. Mother: Clark, Mary Susannah, Ref: 15168
JOHN RICHARD COVINGTON. Ref:
12112. Born 17 Dec 1871 at Morgan Co AL. Mother: Clark, Mary Susannah, Ref:
15168
GENERATION
Two
ANNA L COVINGTON. Ref: 21701. Born:
22 Aug 1860 at Rutherford Co NC. Father: Covington, Richard, Father Ref: 15167.
Mother: Clark,
Mary Susannah, Mother Ref: 15168. Mar: 17 Jul
1881 at Cullman Co AL to Brittain, Joseph Clairborn .
Died: 8 Sep 1889 at Summit,
Blount Co
AL aged 29. (Last updated: 09/05/2019 08:26:42)
VIOLA COVINGTON. Ref: 21703. Born:
16 Dec 1862 at Georgia GA. Father: Covington, Richard, Father Ref: 15167.
Mother: Clark, Mary
Susannah,
Mother Ref: 15168. Died: 8 Sep 1874 at Alabama AL aged 11. (Last updated:
09/05/2019 08:32:21)
OLIVER COVINGTON. Ref: 21704. Born:
2 Jan 1864 at Alabama AL. Father: Covington, Richard, Father Ref: 15167.
Mother: Clark, Mary
Susannah,
Mother Ref: 15168. Died: 15 Jan 1869 at Alabama AL aged 5. (Last updated:
09/05/2019 08:33:45)
GEORGE COVINGTON. Ref: 21705. Born:
5 Nov 1868 at Alabama AL. Father: Covington, Richard, Father Ref: 15167.
Mother: Clark,
Mary
Susannah, Mother Ref: 15168. Died: 18 Jan 1869 at Alabama AL aged 0. (Last
updated: 09/05/2019 08:34:46)
TETIE COVINGTON. Ref: 21702. Born:
25 Jan 1870 at Morgan Co AL. Father: Covington, Richard, Father Ref: 15167.
Mother: Clark, Mary
Susannah, Mother Ref: 15168. Mar: 13 Mar 1890
at Blount Co AL to Brittain, Joseph Clairborn .
Died: 6 Feb 1916 at Summit, Blount Co
AL aged 46.
Married Joseph Clairborne Brittain,
widow of her sister Anna L (ref 21702). (Last updated: 09/05/2019 08:29:56)
JOHN RICHARD COVINGTON. Ref: 12112.
Born: 17 Dec 1871 at Morgan Co AL. Father: Covington, Richard, Father Ref:
15167. Mother:
Clark, Mary
Susannah, Mother Ref: 15168. Mar: 8 Dec 1894 at Blount Co AL to Howell, Hattie
Rebecca 12114. Died: 17 Apr 1955 at
Birmingham,
Jefferson Co AL aged 83. (Last updated: 26/02/2009 19:00:15)
INA COVINGTON. Ref: 12116. Born
13 Sep 1895 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref: 12114
MATTHEW LEE COVINGTON. Ref:
12117. Born 23 Nov 1896 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
MARY COVINGTON. Ref: 12118. Born
13 May 1898 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref: 12114
VICTOR EMMANUEL COVINGTON. Ref:
7524. Born 22 Aug 1900 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
WILLIAM CLARENCE COVINGTON. Ref:
12119. Born 13 Sep 1902 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
CHARLES RICHARD COVINGTON. Ref:
12120. Born 29 Aug 1904 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
JAMES EDWARD COVINGTON. Ref: 12121.
Born 11 Sep 1906 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref: 12114
HOWARD TAFT COVINGTON. Ref:
12122. Born 19 Apr 1909 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
SAM SCOTT COVINGTON. Ref: 12123.
Born 12 Jan 1912 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref: 12114
FLORENCE GENEVA COVINGTON. Ref:
12124. Born 5 Oct 1915 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
FRED DAINWOOD COVINGTON. Ref:
12125. Born 9 Oct 1917 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
HATTIE JANE COVINGTON. Ref:
12126. Born around 1919 at Blount Co AL. Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Ref:
12114
GENERATION
Three
INA COVINGTON. Ref: 12116. Born: 13
Sep 1895 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard, Father Ref: 12112.
Mother: Howell,
Hattie
Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 22 Feb 1920 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to
Carpenter, Frank Bullock . Died: 3 Nov 1973 at
Birmingham,
Jefferson Co AL aged 78. Had 2 sons: Jack & Frank Carpenter (Last updated:
26/02/2009 19:00:15)
MATTHEW LEE COVINGTON. Ref: 12117.
Born: 23 Nov 1896 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard, Father Ref:
12112.
Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 16 May 1926 at Alabama AL to Clancey, Texas 12132. Died: 26 Sep 1985 at
Birmingham,
Jefferson Co AL aged 88. Known as "Brother" (Last updated: 30/12/2001
09:00:21)
MARY COVINGTON. Ref: 12118. Born:
13 May 1898 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard, Father Ref:
12112. Mother: Howell,
Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 28 Apr
1917 at Alabama AL to Blanton, Fred . Died: 20 Mar
1971 at Tuscaloosa Co AL aged
72. (Last
updated: 26/02/2009 19:00:15)
VICTOR EMMANUEL COVINGTON. Ref:
7524. Born: 22 Aug 1900 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard,
Father Ref: 12112.
Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 27 Aug 1929 at Birmingham,
Jefferson Co AL to Frazier, Lillian L 12113. Died: 3
Apr 1969 at Fulton Co GA aged 68. (Last
updated: 14/07/2001 20:28:35)
VICTOR EMMANUEL COVINGTON. Ref:
12115. Born around 1924 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Mother: Frazier,
Lillian L, Ref: 12113
WILLIAM CLARENCE COVINGTON. Ref:
12119. Born: 13 Sep 1902 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard,
Father Ref:
12112.
Mother: Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 29 Jan 1926 at
Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Norton, Lillian Elizabeth
12131.
Died: 19 Mar 1991 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 88. (Last updated:
26/02/2009 19:00:15)
CHARLES RICHARD COVINGTON. Ref:
12120. Born: 29 Aug 1904 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard,
Father Ref: 12112.
Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 26 May 1925 at Birmingham,
Jefferson Co AL to Woods, Lillian Jerome 12130.
Died: 3 Oct
1973 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 69. (Last updated: 26/02/2009
19:00:15)
LILLIAN JEROME COVINGTON. Ref:
4995. Born 1 Mar 1927 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Mother: Woods, Lillian
Jerome, Ref: 12130
CHARLES RICHARD COVINGTON. Ref:
5345. Born 4 Jun 1929 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Mother: Woods, Lillian
Jerome, Ref: 12130
JOSEPH FRANCIS COVINGTON. Ref:
5421. Born 11 Jun 1930 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Mother: Woods, Lillian
Jerome, Ref: 12130
JAMES EDWARD COVINGTON. Ref: 12121.
Born: 11 Sep 1906 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard, Father Ref:
12112.
Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 19 May 1928 at Birmingham,
Jefferson Co AL to Harless, Annie V 12129. Died:
22 Sep 1967
at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 61. (Last updated: 26/02/2009 19:00:15)
HOWARD TAFT COVINGTON. Ref: 12122.
Born: 19 Apr 1909 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard, Father Ref:
12112.
Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Died: 22 Dec 1998 at Birmingham,
Jefferson Co AL aged 89. (Last updated:
26/02/2009
19:00:15)
SAM SCOTT COVINGTON. Ref: 12123.
Born: 12 Jan 1912 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard, Father Ref:
12112. Mother:
Howell,
Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 24 May 1933 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co
AL to Russell, Ellaree Herndon 12128. Died:
21 Apr 1988
at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 76. (Last updated: 26/02/2009 19:00:15)
DENNIS RUSSELL COVINGTON. Ref: 15216.
Born 30 Oct 1948 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Mother: Russell, Ellaree Herndon, Ref: 12128
Sam Scott Covington 12123 and Ellaree
Herndon Covington 12128 - c1970.jpg
FLORENCE GENEVA COVINGTON. Ref:
12124. Born: 5 Oct 1915 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard,
Father Ref: 12112.
Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 1 Jun 1946 at Alabama AL to
Busby, Lewis A . Died: 28 Nov 1985 at Alabama
AL aged 70.
They had 1 son, Johnny Busby. (Last updated: 26/02/2009 19:00:15)
FRED DAINWOOD COVINGTON. Ref:
12125. Born: 9 Oct 1917 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard,
Father Ref: 12112.
Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar: 1 Jun 1946 at South Carolina SC
to Clark, Virginia D 12127. Died: 1 Apr 1991
at
Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 73. (Last updated: 30/12/2001 09:06:58)
HATTIE JANE COVINGTON. Ref: 12126.
Born: around 1919 at Blount Co AL. Father: Covington, John Richard, Father Ref:
12112. Mother:
Howell, Hattie Rebecca, Mother Ref: 12114. Mar:
around 1941 at U.S.A. to Dom, Conway . They had 2 sons
(Last updated: 30/12/2001
09:07:58)
GENERATION
Four
VICTOR EMMANUEL COVINGTON. Ref:
12115. Born: around 1924 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Father: Covington,
Victor
Emmanuel,
Father Ref: 7524. Mother: Frazier, Lillian L, Mother Ref: 12113. (Last updated:
30/12/2001 08:55:07)
LILLIAN JEROME COVINGTON. Ref:
4995. Born: 1 Mar 1927 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Father: Covington,
Charles Richard, Father
Ref: 12120. Mother: Woods, Lillian Jerome,
Mother Ref: 12130. Died: 8 Jul 1928 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 1. (Last
updated:
05/04/2021 15:51:17)
CHARLES RICHARD COVINGTON. Ref:
5345. Born: 4 Jun 1929 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Father: Covington,
Charles Richard,
Father Ref:
12120. Mother: Woods, Lillian Jerome, Mother Ref: 12130. Mar: around 1951 at
Jefferson Co AL to Steele, Helen Marie 6776.
Died: 30
Sep 2003 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 74. (Last updated: 05/04/2021
15:52:54)
MARY GRANT COVINGTON. Ref: 6931.
Born 1960- 1961 at . Mother: Steele, Helen Marie, Ref:
6776
JOSEPH FRANCIS COVINGTON. Ref:
5421. Born: 11 Jun 1930 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Father: Covington,
Charles Richard,
Father Ref:
12120. Mother: Woods, Lillian Jerome, Mother Ref: 12130. Mar: 11 Apr 1951 at
Jefferson Co AL to Schilleci, Ruth Mary 6640.
Died: 13
Apr 2009 at U.S.A. aged 78. (Last updated: 05/04/2021 15:54:35)
JEROME DONALD COVINGTON. Ref:
6651. Born during 1960 at Jefferson Co AL. Mother: Schilleci,
Ruth Mary, Ref: 6640
DENNIS RUSSELL COVINGTON. Ref:
15216. Born: 30 Oct 1948 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Father: Covington, Sam
Scott, Father
Ref: 12123.
Mother: Russell, Ellaree Herndon, Mother Ref: 12128. Mar:
Dec 1977 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Marsh, Vicki Ann
15345. An
American author whose work includes two novels and three nonfiction books. His
subject matter includes spirituality, the
environment,
and the South. Covington's book Salvation on Sand Mountain was a 1995 National
Book Award finalist and his articles have
been
published in The New York Times, Vogue and Redbook.
Covington
was born in Birmingham, Alabama, studied fiction writing and earned a BA degree
from the University of Virginia, then served in
the U.S.
Army. He earned an MFA in the early 1970s from the Iowa Writers' Workshop,
studying under Raymond Carver. He taught English
at the
College of Wooster. He married his second wife, writer Vicki Covington, in
1977. The couple returned to Birmingham the following
year, and
he began teaching at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The couple
divorced in 2005. They have two daughters and three
grandchildren.
In 1983,
Dennis
Covington went to El Salvador as a freelance journalist. In 2003, he became
Professor of Creative Writing at Texas Tech University.
In 2005, he
was a judge for the National Book Awards. Covington spoke at a talk hosted by
the University of Central Florida's literary
magazine
The Cypress Dome in 2009.
In November
2017, Covington started his column called “Deep in the Heart,” published online
by conservative magazine The American
Spectator.
He wrote a total of 20 mini-essays on life in Texas, family, lost love, health
issues, and his childhood in Alabama. Covington’s
essays were
well-received.
Works
include: Lasso the Moon (New York 1991 - Lizard, Delacorte Press), Salvation on
Sand Mountain (snake handling and redemption in
Southern Appalachia) - (Reading, Mass 1995 -
Addison Wesley) also Cleaving: the story of a marriage (New York 1999 - North
Point
Press)
co-written with wife Vicki.
Redneck
Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream, New York:
Counterpoint, 2004.
Revelation:
A Search for Faith in a Violent Religious World, New York: Little Brown &
Company, 2016.
SYNOPSIS OF
"Lizard" PLAY
The story
revolves around the life of a thirteen-year-old boy named Lucius Sims from De
Ridder, Louisiana. Lucius suffers form several
deformities
including an Illness, which cause his eyes to be more on the sides of his head
than normal. He is sent to a state school for
retarded
boys because his guardian, Miss Cooley, does not know how a child with such
severe physical disabilities can function in a normal
environment. While at the school, he is given
the nickname "Lizard" due to his awkward appearance.
Lizard
escapes the school with a couple of actors who are traveling to Birmingham,
Alabama to perform The Tempest. He joins the actors
on their
journey and decides to take the role of Caliban in the production. Through his
work on the play, Lizard proves his capacity to learn,
understand,
perform, and empathize with one of Shakespeare's greatest Characters. This type
of amazing discovery is indicative of the
energetic
teenage boy living inside a twisted body.
DIRECTOR'S
COMMENTS
Lizard is a
very unique play on many levels. The tie to Shakespeare, and particularly the
character of Caliban in The Tempest, is
Covington's
ingenious device to show us that being different is literally in the eyes of
the beholder. While this is a touching play, it is also a
comic
throughout and yet it deals with some very serious issues such as alcoholism,
racism, civil rights, and those magical days of
yesteryear-the
seventies. It is a must see for audiences young and old.
ABOUT THE
PLAYWRIGHT:
Alabama
Author Dennis Covington's award -winning young adult novel, LIZARD, was adapted
for production at the Alabama Shakespeare
Festival as
part of the Southern Writers' Project in 1994. Last year, the ASF production of
LIZARD was selected to perform at the Olympic
Arts Festival
in Atlanta, Georgia. Since that time, Covington won the Barrie Stavis
Playwriting Award for Best New Play of the Year (Lizard)
at the
National Theatre Conference in New York City.
His latest
book entitled SALVATION ON SAND MOUNTAIN was among the finalists for the
prestigious National Book Award for 1995. In
addition,
Covington has published another young adult novel, LASSO THE MOON, which was
published in 1995. Currently, he directs the
creative
writing program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and works as a
journalist, writing about the South for the New York
Times.
Covington is married to novelist Vicki Covington, and the two have plans to
publish two new works in the near future. The SITP/TWU
production
of LIZARD will mark the Texas premiere of the play.
INTERVIEW
WITH Brett Grainger and Rose Marie Berger
Did you
ever get bored in church as a kid? Did you hide comic books or crossword
puzzles in your Bible case to combat the boredom of a
stale
sermon? Well, they don’t have that problem at the church Dennis Covington used
to go to.
While
writing his book Salvation on Sand Mountain (Viking-Penguin, 1996; see review
in March-April 1996), Dennis Covington attended a
church
where members of the congregation drink strychnine from mason jars and handle
poisonous snakes.
In person,
Covington does not come across as the sort of guy who would handle lethal
objects by choice. But he’s no stranger to danger.
Covington
made 12 trips to El Salvador as a journalist, often working amid intense
crossfire during the war. Now back in his hometown of
Birmingham,
Alabama, the soft-spoken college instructor and author is one of the most
exciting new voices in Southern writing. His prose is
lyrical,
compassionate, and full of the musicality that defines Southern speech and
experience.
Covington
is currently busy at work on two new projects. With his wife, Vicki, he is
co-writing a book describing their well- drilling trip to
Belize this
summer. Dennis is also working on a new book for Viking-Penguin.
While on
tour promoting Salvation on Sand Mountain (which was a finalist for the
National Book Award), Covington took time out from his
hectic
schedule to speak with us about writing, faith, and worship after
snake-handling. Staff members Brett Grainger and Rose Marie
Berger
interviewed Covington in the back room of a Washington, D.C. bookstore in
April. —The Editors
Brett
Grainger: You have a wonderful ear for language. While reading Salvation on
Sand Mountain, I recited much of it aloud to a friend. I
was struck
that it sounded as if it had been written to be read aloud. Was this
intentional on your part? If so, do you think there is any
conscious
link between this style of writing and the content or theme of your story?
Dennis
Covington: I think there is. I found myself writing sometimes in the cadences I
heard in the snake-handling churches. The preaching
is so
musical and rhythmic and poetic. I think I patterned my own style after that…and
after the language of the New Testament.
I was
reading the New Testament while I was writing the book—it was the only thing I
was reading. I had never read it before. Even though I
had been
raised in the church, I had never just read the New Testament. It was a
revelation for me.
Grainger: So you feel that reading the New Testament at the same time
influenced the style of the book?
Covington:
I think so. Some of the musicality of the text transferred to the book. I can’t
read the Bible in other translations [than the King
James
Version] now. I’m aware of the missing element. And, of course, the handlers
won’t…nothing else is the Bible.
Grainger:
In your book you write, “At the heart of the impulse to tell stories is a
mystery so profound that even as I begin to speak of it, the
hairs on
the back of my hand are starting to stand on end.” What, for you, is at the
center of this mystery, this deep human impulse to tell
stories?
Covington:
That is how the gospel came to us—in the form of a story—and I don’t know why.
Why did God choose that as the means?
Stories
make sense of our experience, clearly.
In that
passage I was talking about the writer’s uncanny ability to see the past,
present, and future at the same time. For God that’s no
problem; it
all is the same, you know: The past is here and now, as is the present. Artists
simply tap into something of a spiritual nature when
we write a story and, unknown to us sometimes,
we’re also tapping into the past and the future.
Grainger:
In the May-June 1996 issue of Sojourners, we focused specifically on the
relationship between religious faith and creativity. What
is the
connection for you between your faith and your vocation as a writer?
Covington:
I’ve thought a lot about that, but I don’t know whether I can articulate my
thoughts. Madeleine L’Engle has a wonderful book
called
Walking on Water about this, and I am probably
plagiarizing her when I say that we are called—as artists, as writers—to do an
impossible
thing; we’re
called to step out on the water and walk on it. This requires a surrendering of
self. It requires listening to the work. Most of all, it
requires
faith that the one who began this good thing in us is going to bring it to
completion.
Writers are
here for a purpose—to write. When we’re not writing, we’re in trouble. When we
are writing, we are fulfilling a higher obligation.
Grainger: I’m
interested in the connection you draw between your experience as a journalist
in Latin America and your time among the
snake handlers.
In both situations a people historically oppressed, a people familiar with
intense poverty and suffering, rely on their religious
faith as a means to transform their suffering.
Do you feel
it is a common source or common well that people can tap into in these
situations? It’s interesting that you write that they started
handling snakes only when they came down from
the mountain, when they encountered the dominant culture.
Covington:
I’m glad you got that. A lot of people don’t understand what I was driving at
there: Running smack up against a culture that seems
to have lost its sense of the sacred causes
spiritual people to reach deep inside themselves and their faith to find
something that is actually
of lasting
and permanent value.
Way back in
the hills, they don’t handle the snakes. It’s on that border; it’s when they
come down. And many of the people in the snake-
handling
churches are actually more “worldly,” having adapted to some of the cultural
forms. They have VCRs and cars; they like to watch
themselves
on television.
But there’s
nothing that will keep somebody at bay any better than a rattlesnake. If you
hold up a rattlesnake, you’re ensured that you’re
going to be
insulated from that, whatever it is.
Grainger:
How do you worship now?
Covington:
While I was hanging out with the handlers, I continued to go to my own church
in Birmingham a lot. I was frustrated because I
wanted to
shout “Amen” and “Praise God,” and stick my hands up and carry on. I couldn’t
understand why we didn’t just let go. Now that I’m
back there
more or less on a permanent basis, I’m kind of reconciled to that form of
worship.
The only
thing we do in the Baptist Church that’s anything remotely like what the snake
handlers do is to lay on hands during the ordination of
deacons. I was ordained a deacon about a month
ago in my church, and that was as powerful and moving as anything that happened
to me
with the handlers. When my father-in-law, a
lifetime deacon who now has Parkinson’s disease, came down to lay hands on me—a
very
difficult
ordeal for him—I felt those shaking hands on my head as he whispered in my ear.
The sky took off.
People say,
“Why snakes? I mean, why? Why would Jesus make a reference to that?” My answer,
if I’m in a gathering or reading is, “Look
at this.
Why are you here?” I mean, you didn’t come just to hear me talk about my
beliefs, you came to hear about the snakes.
ASHLEY JENNINGS COVINGTON. Ref:
15346. Born around 1978 at Alabama AL. Mother: Marsh, Vicki Ann, Ref: 15345
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/dennis-covington.html
Dennis Russell Covington 15216 - Cleaving.jpg
Dennis Russell Covington 15216 - Down from the Mountain.jpg
Dennis Russell Covington 15216 - Lizard book cover.jpg
Dennis Russell Covington 15216 - Salvation on Sand Mountain
book cover.jpg
Dennis Russell Covington 15216 - with Justine Veatch.jpg
Dennis Russell Covington 15216.jpg
GENERATION
Five
MARY GRANT COVINGTON. Ref: 6931.
Born: 1960- 1961 at . Father: Covington, Charles
Richard, Father Ref: 5345. Mother: Steele,
Helen
Marie, Mother Ref: 6776. Mar: 5 Mar 1982 at Montgomery Co AL to Wall, James Daniel . (Last updated: 05/04/2021 17:56:02)
JEROME DONALD COVINGTON. Ref: 6651.
Born: during 1960 at Jefferson Co AL. Father: Covington, Joseph Francis, Father
Ref: 5421.
Mother: Schilleci, Ruth Mary, Mother Ref: 6640. Mar: 15 Jul 1989 at
Montgomery Co AL to Cox, Audrey Jill 6686. (Last updated:
05/04/2021
15:58:43)
ASHLEY JENNINGS COVINGTON. Ref:
15346. Born: around 1978 at Alabama AL. Father: Covington, Dennis Russell,
Father Ref: 15216.
Mother:
Marsh, Vicki Ann, Mother Ref: 15345. (Last updated: 11/03/2009 16:28:31)
GENERATION
Spouses, etc
Mary Susannah COVINGTON. Ref:
15168. Born: during 1835 at Spartanburg, Spartanburg Co SC. Father: Clark, Father
Ref: 0. Mother: not
known, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 22 Nov 1858 at
Spartanburg, Spartanburg Co SC to Covington, Richard 15167. Died: during 1887
at Alabama
AL aged 52. (Last updated: 26/02/2009
18:56:34)
Hattie Rebecca COVINGTON. Ref:
12114. Born: 1 Nov 1876 at Blount Co AL. Father: Howell, William Cornel, Father
Ref: 0. Mother: Lea,
Geneva
Jane, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 8 Dec 1894 at Blount Co AL to Covington, John Richard
12112. Died: 14 Apr 1953 at Birmingham,
Jefferson
Co AL aged 76. (Last updated: 26/02/2009 19:00:15)
Texas COVINGTON. Ref: 12132. Born:
around 1896 at U.S.A.. Father: Clancey,
Father Ref: 0. Mother: not known, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 16
May 1926 at
Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Covington, Matthew Lee 12117. (Last updated:
30/12/2001 09:17:56)
Lillian L COVINGTON. Ref: 12113.
Born: around 1900 at U.S.A.. Father: Frazier, Father
Ref: 0. Mother: not known, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 27
Aug 1929 at
Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Covington, Victor Emmanuel 7524. (Last updated:
30/12/2001 08:52:58)
Lillian Elizabeth COVINGTON. Ref:
12131. Born: around 1902 at U.S.A.. Father: Norton,
Father Ref: 0. Mother: not known, Mother Ref: 0.
Mar: 20 Jan
1926 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Covington, William Clarence 12119. (Last
updated: 30/12/2001 09:15:42)
Lillian Jerome COVINGTON. Ref:
12130. Born: 25 May 1903 at Alabama AL. Father: Woods, Francis Jerome, Father
Ref: 0. Mother:
Merola,
Lillian Caroline, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 26 May 1925 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co
AL to Covington, Charles Richard 12120. Died: 19
Apr 1988 at
Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 84. (Last updated: 05/04/2021 15:51:17)
Annie V COVINGTON. Ref: 12129.
Born: around 1906 at U.S.A.. Father: Harless, Father
Ref: 0. Mother: not known, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 19
May 1928 at
Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Covington, James Edward 12121. (Last updated:
26/02/2009 19:00:15)
Ellaree Herndon
COVINGTON. Ref: 12128. Born: around 1912 at U.S.A..
Father: Russell, Father Ref: 0. Mother: not known, Mother Ref: 0.
Mar: 24 May
1933 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Covington, Sam Scott 12123. See Photo
File "Sam Scott 12123 & Elleree Herndon
12128 -
c1970". (Last updated: 30/12/2001 09:11:26)
Ellaree Herndon Covington 12128 and Sam Scott Covington 12123 -
c1970.jpg
Virginia D COVINGTON. Ref: 12127.
Born: around 1917 at U.S.A.. Father: Clark, Father
Ref: 0. Mother: not known, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 1
Jun 1946 at
South Carolina SC to Covington, Fred Dainwood 12125. (Last
updated: 30/12/2001 09:09:27)
Helen Marie COVINGTON. Ref: 6776.
Born: 11 Mar 1929 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Father: Steele, George
Gilliam, Father Ref: 0.
Mother: Busenlehner, Marguerite Irene, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: around
1951 at Jefferson Co AL to Covington, Charles Richard 5345. Died: 3
Jun 1982 at
Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL aged 53. (Last updated: 05/04/2021 16:02:46)
Ruth Mary COVINGTON. Ref: 6640.
Born: during 1931 at U.S.A.. Father: Schilleci, Paul Joseph, Father Ref: 0. Mother: Broccoleri, Mary N,
Mother Ref:
0. Mar: 11 Apr 1951 at Jefferson Co AL to Covington, Joseph Francis 5421. (Last
updated: 05/04/2021 15:56:30)
Vicki Ann COVINGTON. Ref: 15345.
Born: 22 Oct 1952 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL. Father: Marsh, Jack, Father
Ref: 0. Mother:
Katherine,
Mother Ref: 0. Mar: Dec 1977 at Birmingham, Jefferson Co AL to Covington,
Dennis Russell 15216. Vicki Covington - article by
Beth Thames, Huntsville, Alabama
"Birmingham
native Vicki Covington (1952- ) is an award-winning novelist, short-story
writer, and essayist. Her fiction is characterized by
themes of
family and community and is set in her native South. She has described herself
as a life-long observer of people, a trait that has
proven
essential to her life as a writer; her nonfiction is often personal and candid.
Vicki Ann
Marsh Covington was born in Birmingham, Jefferson County, on October 22, 1952,
to Jack Marsh, a metallurgical engineer, and
Katherine
Marsh, a teacher. She had one sibling, the late Randy Marsh, a playwright and
co-founder of the Birmingham Festival Theatre. At
her
mother's urging, Covington began keeping a journal at age eight. Covington
observed the people around her and wrote down what they
did and said. She states that she enjoyed solitude and liked
watching life more than participating in it. Though she wrote every day, she
would not
think of herself as a writer for many decades.
She was
educated in the Birmingham public school system and graduated from Woodlawn
High School in 1971. Covington attended the
University
of Alabama, where she received a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1974 and a
master's degree in social work in 1976. She
worked as a
social worker in Birmingham from March 1976 to August 1977, at which time she
moved to Wooster, Ohio, with her fiancé,
writer
Dennis Covington, whom she had known since childhood. She continued her career
as a social worker, and Dennis taught English at
the College
of Wooster. In December 1977, the couple travelled back to Birmingham for their
wedding and then returned to Wooster. The
couple
moved back to Birmingham in August 1978, and Dennis taught English at the
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Vicki
worked as a social worker and outpatient
therapist in the UAB Department of Psychiatry's substance abuse program from
1978 to 1988.
Throughout
this period, Covington continued to write in her journal and began developing
her entries into short stories.
She began
to send her stories out to journals in Ohio, but none were published until
after her move to Alabama. She had some successes
with early
stories in minor literary journals during the early 1980s. Then, in 1986, The New
Yorker published two stories, "Duty," in the August
18th issue, and "Magnolia," in the
March 24th issue. Covington has described these events as turning points in her
writing career because
they
brought her name to a wider audience and gained the attention of publishing
companies.
At the
request of an editor at publishing house Simon & Schuster, Covington
developed an unpublished short story into the novel Gathering
Home, a
coming-of-age story that was published in 1988. Covington left her job as a social
worker that year after receiving grants from the
Alabama
State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her second
novel, Bird of Paradise (1990), tells the story of a
retired
waitress sustained by a network of community and friends; it received the 1991
Fiction Award from the Alabama Library
Association.
Subsequent
novels include Night Ride Home (1992), set in a small Alabama mining community
around the time of the December 1941
attack on
Pearl Harbor, and The Last Hotel for Women (1996),
set during the civil rights movement and focused on the Freedom Rides, the
Ku Klux
Klan, and the Birmingham Campaign of 1963. Covington and her brother adapted
The Last Hotel for Women for the stage, and it
was
performed in 1996 at Birmingham Festival Theatre and again in June 2012.
Covington
also has published two books of nonfiction: Cleaving: The Story of a Marriage,
co-authored with husband Dennis Covington,
which was
named a Best Book of the Year by The Library Journal in 1999, and Women in a
Man's World, Crying in 2002. Cleaving is a
collection
of essays on struggle, enduring love, and forgiveness in a long marriage, and
Women in a Man's World is a collection of essays
that
originally appeared as columns for The Birmingham News and for specific
literary occasions, such as the Eudora Welty Literary
Symposium.
The essays are divided into six themes: "Girls and Women," "Neighborhood," "Death," "The
South," "Spiritual Matters," and
"Writing."
The essays address topics such as raising her daughters, coping with her
husband's cancer, her own heart attack, and her
mother's
Alzheimer's disease, and offering her own perspectives on family, friendship,
and faith.
During 2001
and 2002, Covington wrote a regular column for The Oxford American called
"Meditations for Bad Girls." She describes these
pieces as
both spiritual and secular. One is titled "Men I've Kissed" and
another, "Women I've Kissed." Her work also has been published in
Southern Living, Southern Humanities Review,
Shenandoah, PMS, and other journals. Citing the negative reaction to the
directness and
honesty
about the Covington's difficult marriage as the cause, Covington stopped
writing altogether in 2002. She taught fiction writing at
UAB from
1998 to 2009, first as an adjunct in the English Department and then in the Honors Program, and has also spoken at writing
conferences
around the region. In 2017, after a 15-year hiatus, Covington published the
novel Once in a Blue Moon, set in the Glen Iris
neighborhood of Birmingham during the
presidency of Barack Obama.
Covington's
novels are set in Alabama, and her characters are decidedly southern. A January
1, 1996, review in Publisher's Weekly noted
that
Covington has the ability to depict southerners—both men and women—with
discerning candor and also with sympathetic
understanding."
Review by
Laurie Parker of The Last Hotel for Women by Vicki Covington. Simon &
Schuster New York 1996, $23. ISBN 0-684-81111-1
"Each
time I read a book by Vicki Covington, I think, "Will this be the one that
does it? Will this be the book that finally brings this writer the
attention
she deserves?" With her fourth novel, Covington may have written the book
that will at last place her on the bestseller lists where
she
belongs.
Covington
is a master of undercurrent, telling one story on the surface while tapping
into something deeper and more powerful underneath.
In this
book, Covington has given herself a powerful taskÑdepicting
Birmingham, Alabama, in Freedom Summer, just as the whole city was
about to
blow apart. She personalizes the events of that summer by focusing on one
family, Pete and Dinah Fraley and their children, Benny
and Gracie.
While we are allowed inside the other characters' thoughts, it is the Fraleys who center the novel, and it is their small hotel
to
which each
of the other characters is drawn like metal shavings to a magnet.
Covington
has also given herself the daunting challenge of writing about Bull Connor, one
of the most infamous racists of the day, in the first
person. It
is a testament to Covington's talent for creating rich, complex, and believable
characters that she actually makes Connor, if not
admirable,
at least understandable.
Connor's
connection to the Fraleys goes back to Dinah's
childhood, when the hotel was a bordello run by Dinah's mother, and Connor was
a
frequent visitor. After Dinah took over and
turned the house into a respectable hotel, Connor continued to visit the Fraleys as an old friend of
the family, tolerated by Dinah because of his
connection with her dead mother, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. When the
Fraleys
take in a
freedom rider who was injured in a riot as her bus pulled into the Birmingham
station, those old ties become frayed to the breaking
point.
Benny
Fraley's romance with the strange visitor, his young sister's wide-eyed yet
wise observation of the whirlwind of people and events
around the
family, and Pete Fraley's guilt and frustration at being a white foreman of
Negro ironworkers provide texture and depth to the
story. But The Last Hotel for Women is ultimately about family
strength, which is so powerful it can bolster outsiders as well, and about
choices:
whether to move ahead, or to cling to a dying past. The Fraleys
stand together to face a new South, while Connor loses his footing
and is
eventually overcome by the tide of desegregation and civil rights.
The Last
Hotel for Women is a powerful book, and a moving one. Its themes still resonate
in our society, just as Covington's characters
remain in
our heads long after the last page is turned."
Other works
include:
Night Ride
Home (New York 1992 - Simon & Schuster), Bird of Paradise (New York 1990 -
Simon & Schuster)
also
co-wrote Cleaving: the story of a marriage (New York 1999 - North Point Press)
with husband Dennis (Last updated: 11/03/2009
16:27:12)
Vicki Ann Covington 15345 - The Last Hotel For Women.jpg
Audrey Jill COVINGTON. Ref: 6686.
Born: during 1965 at U.S.A.. Father: Cox, Father Ref:
0. Mother: not known, Mother Ref: 0. Mar: 15 Jul
1989 at
Montgomery Co AL to Covington, Jerome Donald 6651. (Last updated: 05/04/2021
16:00:39)
