harp to Spain but had made a side trip to Borderville, Virginia-Tennessee, a place that some people believed, albeit erroneously, to be out of the way.
âSuppose you just tell me all you know about him,â I said.
âOh,â Ethel began, âheâs a very nice man. Arthur knows himâplays golf with him now and then and of course he belongs to the club. His wife was very niceâsouthern girlâdied suddenly about eight years agoâvery sad!
âHeâs highly regarded as a musician and has his own conservatoryâthe Garcia School, I think he calls it. People come from just about everywhere to study harp with him. The harp is such a beautiful instrumentâlet me see â¦â
There was a pause before Ethel went on. âI readâthatâs itâheâs gone abroad, concert tour. Oh, heâs just very fine.â
âEthel,â I said, âare you where you are comfortable?â
âYes,â she said, âWhy?â
âGood, because I have a long story, and youâll find it interesting.â I told her about the whole adventure and my problems with Butch Gilroy.
âYou donât mean it!â she said when I had finished. âBut then I have always said that a Regent, if she is worth anything, can handle any crisis, and you are a Regent. Now what can I do to help you?â
âYouâve already done a lot,â I replied. âBut suppose you give me a description.â
âHeâs very good looking,â she said. âMaybe sixty or more. His parents were refugeesâperhaps came to America about
thirty-six. Yes, Iâd say he is at least sixtyâdark, of courseâlots of wavy hair.â
âCould it be a wig?â I interrupted.
Ethel laughed. âYes, it is. Much too good to be true. Well, letâs seeâI would say the features are regular. Rather heavy eyebrows. Rimless spectacles. Not quite six feet tall. Medium buildâvery expensive clothesâalways. His wife had money.â
âDoes he have relatives there?â
âNoânone here, I think. I could ask.â
âDo,â I said, âand I canât thank you enough.â
As soon as we disconnected, I knew what I had to do. I was positive that the person who used GarcÃaâs ticket on USAir had not been Garcia. I was going to build a fire under Butch Gilroy and make him do the right thing. I immediately called Al Manley at the Banner-Democrat and told him I was absolutely sure that the corpse in question was Luis Garcia Valera of the Garcia School of Music in Santa Barbara, California, that he was known internationally, and that efforts were being made through a friend to locate the next of kin.
I explained that I knew Ethel through the DAR. He kept asking me specific questions, and I hardly knew whether I should pull back before plunging into such notoriety as the Banner-Democrat could create. But I went right ahead.
The next morning I read the following story:
DAR IDENTIFIES BODY
Transcontinental Cooperation of Womenâs Organization Provides Information
The body discovered ten days ago by representatives of the Old Orchard Fort Chapter, DAR, of Borderville has now been identified as that of the internationally known musician and
educator Luis Garcia Valera, according to Mrs. Henry Delaporte, Regent of the chapter.
A clue picked up at Three City Airport led to Santa Barbara, California, where Delaporte contacted DAR member Ethel Muehlbach. Through Muehlbach an accurate description of Garcia was secured. âThe body we found in Brown Spring Cemetery tallied in every way with the description furnished by Mrs. Muehlbach,â Delaporte stated. âI have not the slightest doubt that the man buried as a pauper here last week was in reality a musician of international reputation,â she added.
Delaporte and Muehlbach became acquainted when both were delegates in 1983 to Continental Congress, an