I am writing in response to many articles about Congressman Douglas Stringfellow that have been published in several newspapers. I am not writing as a representative of the family, but I'm sure that just as I have felt bristled, maybe others have felt the same way. Quite possibly something may be missing in these reports of a man on the 40th anniversary of an incident that took place in the post-war era.
I was too young to remember my Uncle Doug's political position, but I remember good things. He was a great person, a wonderful father, a talented artist, and he was wounded and broken from war. But he was always smiling. Our families were close.My question is: Why can't we recognize that a good person who obtained a political position made a mistake and he paid the price? He was mortally wounded. He was paralyzed. He was young. And he died young from wounds as an American soldier. I have wonderful family memories, and I will defend my family name publicly to anyone.
If facts and statements are going to be brought up after 40 years, then a member of the Stringfellow family, the oldest granddaughter of my dear grandmother and mother of my father and my Uncle Doug, also has a statement after 40 years. Why criticize and scrutinize a mistake of a person of notoriety when a whole life is ignored?
That would be my wish for the people of Utah who care to remember Congressman Stringfellow in 1954.
Sherida Stringfellow Cluff
Elden R. Stringfellow
Mesa, Ariz.