1892-1972
On Christmas Eve, 1946, Davis Lingo pulled up the chair in his office in Milton, Delaware, and placed a sheet of Caravan Bond paper into his typewriter. Filled with nostalgia, he wrote a love poem to his wife, Sarah, whom he had married 36 years ago that day. He entitled it, “Just My Girl.” There had been “days of sadness of which we can tell, / Days when clouds gathered, and rain drops fell,” but “Through passing years sands may drift, and rapids whirl, / … I remain happy with Just My Girl.”
Sarah must have loved that poem and saved it all her life. Somehow, it found its way to Squash a Penny Antique Store in Doswell, Virginia, where I bought it yesterday for $2. I have contacted who I believe is a descendant of Davis and Sarah — I’d like to mail it to them. I’ll write more about the family soon; I’m just too swamped right now. But I’ll update this right away if I hear from the family.
In the meantime, I’ll post a photo and a PDF of the poem.
Enjoy…
and Merry Christmas!
4 December 2019
Update: Found the family through a friend of theirs who is on ancestry.com. Here is a photo of the lovebirds which the family kindly provided. Speculation is that an Uncle Bob, who once lived in Virginia, may have brought the poem to these parts …
Update 2: Fast forward to February 2024. A family relative tells me that Uncle Bob is Robert D. Lingo III, who was a grandson of the lovebirds. He was the one who moved to Virginia in the 1970s. He was a graduate of the University of Virginia and wanted to return to Central Virginia.
Click below to download a scan of the poem:
Richmond Narratives 