Mary Jane Roach Masters Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q. Where was it in the east?
A. We went to Virginia Beach and Williarnsburg.
Q. Well what a wonderful place to go.
A. It was. It was perfectly lovely. In the latter part of May.
Q. Latter part of May. Perfectly Beautiful. Tell me something about Tom's background. His
parents and siblings.
A. That's a story in itself.
Q. Here we go.
A. His father was a hot shot work-a-holic lawyer, very much like his own mother, who was a
New Englander. A Methodist. The daughter of a Methodist minister. Very hard driving, very
smart, very energetic. I think she brought the drive and probably the brains into the Masters'
family. Edgar Lee Masters, the poet, showed the conflict between her and her husband who was
a charming, laid-back southerner. Very attractive fellow. A lawyer in Petersburg, Lewiston, and
politician and he was an old-fashioned Populist. Uncle Lee was always a populist but Tom's
father rebelled against all this and was a rabid Republican and he. . .
Q. Was Tom a Republican?
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Q. And you went over to attend. . .
A. NO! Tom and Dexter were New Deal democrats. Indeed not. Tom always knew he wanted
to be a doctor. There was never any question. He was the first person in the family who wanted
to be a doctor. I knew his mother well, and I felt his mother brought a great deal into the
Masters' family. She brought a certain stability and certain talents. I think his interest in science
came from her family primarily rather than from the Masters, but Dexter, his younger brother,
was a real Master and, of course, became an editor and a novelist and his second wife, his
widow, Joan Brady Masters, won the Whitbread prize in England in 1994 for her book of fiction,
A. No, no. She came over here. Dexter was not living at that time. He died in 1988.
Q. Who was the author of Spoon
A. Edgar Lee Masters, the Uncle. Tom's Uncle.
Q. You know I have a son who attended the Neighborhood Playhouse and they used that book