On this day in Alabama history: Popular author died
Writer Francis Lloyd Bartow is known for his newspaper columns about Alabama life and culture written in as his alterego, Rufus Sanders. The columns dealt with politics, religion and folk culture through the homespun musings of Sanders and reflect the typical aspects of the "local color" tradition in literature. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama)
Aug. 25, 1897
Francis Bartow Lloyd is remembered for “Sketches of Country Life: Humor, Wisdom and Pathos from the Sage of Rocky Creek,” a collection of his syndicated newspaper columns featuring his alter-ego Rufus Sanders. Lloyd, a Lowndes County native, spoke all over the South during his prime despite having only one year of uninterrupted formal education in Greenville. He was a reporter in Selma for the Morning Times before becoming editor. Four years later he became a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser and was soon promoted to city editor. He was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1890. He bought a 122-acre farm with his earnings from the syndicated columns. He ran for Secretary of State in 1894 but lost that election. Lloyd died on this day in 1897.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
