Old Letters

Old Letters.jpg Evvy.png

Photograph of Eva Cloar,

University of Memphis Libraries

Cloar’s mother was named Eva Davis, but everyone knew her as Evvy. Cloar described her as a shy, backwoods girl with a gentle beauty that drew in many suitors. Evvy kept a dusty brown packet that held all of the love letters from her various suitors. Many of these letters came from Cloar’s father, a farmer named Charley who had given up on love until he met Evvy at the age of 33.

Cloar recalled, “Grandmaw David wanted Evvy to marry a circuit-riding preacher, but she chose instead one of the hard-drinking Cloars.” Cloar’s portrait of his mother presents her as a young beauty, set against a backdrop of her love letters, with those written by his father at the top of the pile.