When local racists zero in on Eula, Cyrena puts Starla, Eula, and James on a bus bound for Nashville. She cares for them for two weeks while Starla recovers and Eula earns money by baking goods for local eateries and residents. In the nearby town, a black woman named Miss Cyrena readily takes in Starla, Eula, and baby James. None of the local farmers-all black-want to help a white girl. Starla, Eula, and Baby James are forced to spend the night in their truck when it breaks down not long after. He tells them to be careful because racial tensions are high with the civil rights movement in full swing. A friendly white farmer comes along and helps pull the truck out of the ditch. Not long into the trip, an angry and racist white drive rear-ends Eula’s truck, causing them to go into a ditch. She, Starla, and Baby James set out the next morning. Starla requests that Eula bring her to Nashville. Eula is heartbroken, and seeks to make it up to Starla. Wallace attempts to strangle Starla, but Eula kills Wallace by hitting him over the head with a cast iron skillet. Wallace, a physically abusive alcoholic, is terrified and enraged that Eula has brought home a white girl and a white baby without permission from their parents. Eula offers Starla dinner, and says her husband, Wallace, can help get Starla to Nashville. Eula explains she found James on the church steps, so she is taking James in. Outside of town, Starla is picked up by a black woman named Eula, traveling home with a white baby named James. Sellers declares that Starla will certainly go to reform school, causing Stella to decide to run away from home to find her mother in Nashville. ![]() She is caught by Jimmy’s mother, who attempts to force Starla into her car to bring her to Grandma. Grounded from seeing the fireworks, Starla sneaks out anyways. When she sees Jimmy Sellers picking on Priscilla Panichelli, she punches Jimmy in the face and breaks his nose. Starla, however, is doing everything she can to stay on her best behavior so she can see the fireworks on July Fourth. Grandma is very strict, and will ground or smack Starla for the smallest errors. ![]() Her father works on an oil rig out in the Gulf, while her mother has gone to Nashville to become a famous singer. When the novel begins, Starla lives in Cayuga Springs, Mississippi, with her grandmother. “Whistling Past the Graveyard” is an historical novel by Susan Crandall which follows the July 1963 journey of 9-year-old Starla Claudelle as she attempts to find her mother in Nashville with the help of Eula, a black woman who is traveling with a white baby named James.
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