Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Norfleet Family Papers, 1944 and 1992, Accession #8809-j , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library by Mrs. Fillmore Norfleet of Charlottesville, Virginia, on November 10, 1992.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of two disparate items, 1944 and 1992. The first is a letter written by Deverton Carpenter, a member of General George S. Patton's staff in France, and is addressed to Howard Dutcher, a former colleague of Carpenter's on the Richmond News Leader . It was given to Mrs. Norfleet, also a journalist on the News Leader during the 1930s, as a momento of her colleagues by Howard Dutcher's widow. The letter is dated September 5, l944, but Carpenter was killed in France before the end of the war.

Carpenter presents an articulate view of the post-Normandy campaign in France, what he calls "a fast-moving shooting war." The war action appears disorganized and haphazard: Carpenter says the first two weeks in France were like "hanging onto the tail of the skyrocket." Solitary enemy tanks appear behind Allied lines; drunken Germans beg to be captured; and lone snipers create risks in towns presumed to have been liberated.

The letter is valuable for its essentially "civilian" description of war. He offers vignettes of liberated French towns, breakfasts being interrupted by Luftwaffe strafing runs, and champagne being served as a beverage in the officer's mess. He comments on the elegance of the French women (even those in tattered clothing), and the captured German soldiers' fears of being murdered by Frenchmen seeking revenge. His letter expresses admiration and respect for General Patton, and his pleasure "in having done a bit towards winning the war."

The second item is a twenty-eight page memoir of Amanda Stewart Bryan Kane written by Elizabeth Norfleet in 1992. The memoir begins by rehearsing the family background of Mrs. Kane, who grew up in early twentieth-century Richmond as the daughter of the wealthy and respected Stewart and Bryan families. The Bryans in particular represented the New South, having converted their wealth to transportation and communication opportunities after the Civil War. Mrs. Kane attended private schools in Richmond and then enrolled at Smith College, choosing a northern school in order to broaden her horizons. She received a B.A. in English from Smith in 1927 and returned home to Richmond. In 1929 she married Keith Kane, a New York City attorney and businessman, and established a home in New York City where they lived for over forty years.

In New York Mrs. Kane engaged in volunteer and charity work while raising their four daughters. The Kanes moved in distinguished social circles of the business, academic, and political worlds of New York from the 1930s to the 1960s. Both were deeply committed to various religious, academic, and philanthropic works. Both were also involved in the direction of their respective alma maters, with Mrs. Kane serving as alumnae President, alumnae Trustee, and finally as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Smith. During the 1950s she singlehandedly engineered the donation and construction of a chapel for Smith, for which effort she was invested with a Doctorate of Humane Letters in 1955 when the chapel was dedicated.

After her husband's retirement, the couple moved to Charlottesville to be near two of their daughters and their families. Soon they found themselves not only continuing their earlier associations but pursuing new ones. Mrs. Kane, in particular, had moved from an early posture as a "traditional conservative" to an "independent liberal" position. She worked quietly for decades to promote racial harmony and intellectual tolerance. After her husband's death in 1974, Mrs. Kane continued to live an active life based in, but not limited to, Charlottesville. Increasing blindness imposed limits on her mobility as she approached her eighties, and, the church took on even more importance in her life. Surrounded by family and friends, Mrs. Kane died in 1990. Her legacy to the world was, as the author claims, her "intelligent kindness" and a model of service to the greater community.

The memoir is an interesting commentary on a life of privilege and service, as well as an addition to Richmond local history.