Hillbilly Elegy

visitation in Middletown so that all of
her friends from Ohio could gather and
pay their respects. Like Papaw, she
wanted a second visitation and funeral
back home in Jackson, at Deaton’s. After
her funeral, the convoy departed for
Keck, a holler not far from where
Mamaw was born that housed our
family’s cemetery. In family lore, Keck
held an even higher place of honor than
Mamaw’s birthplace. Her own mother—
our beloved Mamaw Blanton—was born
in Keck, and Mamaw Blanton’s younger
sister—Aunt Bonnie, nearly ninety
herself—owned a beautiful log cabin on
the same property. A short hike up the
mountain from that log cabin is a