Re: BG: Re: Ralph's Father's Grave

[Doris Bradley]

June 6, 2004   Dear Mark:   Thanks for your kind words.  Daddy never forgot who made both brothers the success they were-people like you.  Daddy's headstone is still there-we just put it in front of the above-ground cemetery.  I think my folks are in the best place in the world in the best hands in the world.  Hope you do get to go back there soon.  It's so beautiful there now, & great to sit & contemplate from that cemetery.  I'm looking forward to someday being there with my husband & the rest of  our family.  EVERYBODY used to like to camp around there, but you could sure get stuck if it rained---mud everywhere!  Daddy & Ralph were two little poor boys who really did run, romp, & play in those hills.  The brothers were so isolated, just the 2 of them & Grandma Lucy, no transportation except the school bus to school and no real close neighbors.  It would have been unbearably lonely for them without one another.  They did have a radio where they listened to all the music it would provide for them.  Guess that's what made them so close for life & kept them together until the day Daddy died.  We'll all be together again there someday.   Again, thanks for your kind words.  I don't always say things just right but my heart's good & in the right place & I know every person who participates in this website thingey - you folks are what made Daddy & Ralph SING!  Daddy always said "if God gives you a talent, you have an obligation to share that with people.  If people accept you and you make a success, you have an obligation to every person who put you where you are---because without people, fans---good people just like you, you don't make a success and you don't get anywhere.  People who love and help preserve the music and come to hear us sing are the only way we can do what we love to do."  It's folks like you who keep that music alive.    Thank you so very much for being someone who allowed the Stanley Brothers to do what they loved to do.  Keep loving mountain  music---it's the best there is.   Cordially,     Doris Stanley Bradley. ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2004 7:47 AM Subject: Re: BG: Re: Ralph's Father's Grave Thank you Doris for such a detailed and poignant explanation in response to the question about the father's burial site.  I attended the first five or six memorial festivals and remember the cemetery with your father's headstone.   I used to camp right next to cemetery (this was when they held the festival in the hollow). I still get choked up when Ralph sings "Hills of Home tribute to Carter" and remember visualizing from my camp site how 2 little boys romped in those hills. I returned twice in the late 80's but haven't been able to get back. I will try next year, God willing. Mark Zigoris, Cincinnati, Ohio