Paul Petersen, the great-grandson of Lee and Jamie Snow Branch, recently shared these photos of his family in Quitman. He wrote that they were: “… passed down from my Grandmother (Lalla Branch Kirkpatrick) to my Mom.  They now reside with my sister in North Carolina. In a strange coincidence, my sister was viewing these photos just last week, which she has not done in years.“

Lee and Jamie Branch met a tragic end in this house at the hands of Jamie’s brother, Livingston Snow Branch, in 1937, and the case was sensationalized by local and national media. Paul added: “My Mom passed away 5 years ago along with any direct familial memory of events.  She was not yet born when her Grandparents were killed, so she has heard the stories from her Mother.  The article you wrote matches with the description of events passed down from my Grandmother to my Mom.  From our families side we speculate that Livingstone was perhaps bi-polar or schizo affective…“

Lalla was 27 at the time of this tragedy and long gone from Quitman by then. She married Charles Cochran Kirkpatrick in 1932, and they lived in numerous locations, as her husband was a rising officer in the United States Navy. He was eventually promoted to rear admiral.

Lalla was undoubtedly devastated by the loss of her parents and I’m sure these photographs were difficult reminders of their lives in Quitman. I’m grateful to Paul for allowing me to share them. They show the family in happy times, as a means of putting a human face on his grandmother and great-grandparents, beyond the headlines.