Peachy the Magazine October November 2014 | Page 116

Last Man Standing
a review of Beth Macy’s Factory Man

A

WRITTEN BY

Kitty Garner

A dark, menacing tempest taunted the
southern foothills of Virginia on the
night of October 18, 1937. The storm
swirled and pitched through the gaps
and hollows of the Blue Ridge, and
then, as if it had found its mark, hovered and settled over the tiny hamlet
of Bassett, Virginia and unleashed its
fury—a relentless torrent of rain. The
Smith River swelled, crested its banks
and rose until its waters rushed across
the floors of Mr. J.D. Bassett’s cavernous furniture factories, threatening
to ruin not only his company, but his
eponymous town as well.
Ironically, there was reason for jubilation in the midst of the deluge, for Mr.
J.D.’s first grandson was born that same
day, and the family furniture dynasty
finally had its long-awaited male heir,
John D. Bassett III (“JBIII”). From the
moment of his birth, the destiny of the
third generation scion to the Bassett
furniture fortune seemed preordained,
as laid out in an exultant letter Mr. J.D.

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