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Article: A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME
- Article from:
- Roanoke Times & World News
- Article date:
- July 6, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Roanoke Times & World News. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1907, shortly after my grandpa, Elmer Frank Braden, was born,
his parents took him to church to have him baptized. The priest
refused on the grounds that there was no St. "Elmer" and no St.
"Frank." He would do the job, he said, if they changed it to "Elmo
Francis" -- which, for the uninformed, happens to be the names of
two of the all-time Top 10 saints. With the alternative being
consigning their firstborn's immortal soul to an eternity in Limbo,
his parents agreed.
Interestingly, when my Aunt Myrtle was baptized five years later,
nobody raised any objections over naming her after a shrub.
My grandpa laughed the story off and no one ever called him
"Elmo." But my grandma was not so ...