BOOK REVIEW
Former Alabama governor’s daughter
shares journey to reconciling with father
T
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Syndicated Book Reviewer
he path your parents first set you on is not
the path you ended
up taking.
Somewhere along
the way, you veered to
the left or stepped to the
right. You found your own
groove, made your own
decisions, and made adjust-
ments while you learned
where you were going. And
as in the new book “The
Broken Road” by Peggy
Wallace Kennedy (with
Justice H. Mark Kennedy), it
was essential to know where
you came from.
Photo by
She never doubted that
Stephanie Kennedy
her daddy loved her.
Author Peggy Wallace
Kennedy
Still, when Peggy Wallace
Kennedy was growing up,
her father was absent more than he was present,
even when he was in the room: George Wallace’s
political promise to himself as a young man con-
sumed him until campaigning became an obsession.
He was away for much of Kennedy’s early life, meet-
ing prospective constituents and asking for votes.
After he lost the 1958 Alabama Governor’s seat
to an opponent who was “racist to the heart,” the
obsession grew and festered.
Before then, says Kennedy, when her father was
a judge, he was known for fairness and equality in
the courtroom but when Wallace lost that election,
something changed in his mind. He started telling
people that he was a segregationist, he began using
words that were shocking, and his behavior attracted
voters to his side. He all but abandoned his wife and
family, and focused only on winning the next time.
Kennedy says that once the Wallaces were
ensconced in the Governor’s Mansion in 1962, she
thought everything was fine until she learned of
the violence happening throughout their state and,
though she was just a child and somewhat shielded
from her father’s actions by her strong, tenderheart-
ed mother, she couldn’t believe her Daddy would
allow that. After her mother’s death, however, when
Wallace renewed his decision to run for President,
Kennedy’s eyes were opened and she wished she
could stand for racial equality by standing up to
him.
42•
But by “the fall of 1968,” she says, “I was neither
white nor black. The color of my skin was Wallace.”
Absolutely, “The Broken Road” is a book of a
thousand emotions.
Anger, disgust, outrage – of course, you may
remember those.
Keep going: deep sadness rings this tale, but a
sense of satisfaction may be found, too, as pieces
of a 50-plus-year-old puzzle fall into place. Also
in author Peggy Wallace’s hands, the story of her
mother is told with steely inspiration, while other
passages hold a tinge of droll Well-Bless-Your-Heart
zingers that are delightfully tucked in.
Mostly, though, this book seems to be about teas-
ing apart the years, trying to understand why and
how what happened, happened, and reconciling
what was with
what is. It’s a
child’s-eye view
of history with
an adult’s careful
perspective, final-
ized as Kennedy
writes of spiri-
tual generosity
and the forgive-
ness her father
received toward
the end of his
life, and the
tender friend-
ships she has
with those he
hurt.
Love,
politics, the
tumultuous
‘60s, current
events, it’s all
in this can’t-
miss biog-
raphy. “The
Broken
Road” is
paved with grace.
“The Broken Road: George Wallace and a
Daughter’s Journey to Reconciliation” by Peggy
Wallace Kennedy with Justice H. Mark Kennedy, 292
pages, c.2019, Bloomsbury $28.
• Terri Schlichenmeyer of The Bookworm Sez is a
self-syndicated book review columnist. Schlichenmeyer’s
reviews include adult and children books of every
genre. You may contact her at [email protected]