“Born in a sharecropper’s shack in ‘32, I thought we were well off. Still do.” – Darnell Fulgham
Born September 6 of said year, the 3rd of 4 children to Mavourneen and Gib Fulgham, Darnell passed away on De¬cember 19 at his home, or Fulgham Holler, as he liked to call it, not 10 miles from said shack.
Darnell came of age in Reform, and later Memphis where his mother worked in a wartime factory. After the war the family re¬turned to Choctaw, where he was backup offen¬sive tackle on the undefeated '47 Indians, and Vice President of the Class of 1950 at AHS. Fol-lowing time at Holmes Junior College, he was drafted into the Army and served in Panama during the Korean War. He studied English and Art at Southern Miss and worked in Jack-son for architect Jim Lee from Ackerman. In 1961 he followed his passion for architecture and moved across the country to Eugene, Ore¬gon, where one day he sat behind Florence Ben¬ninghoven in an introductory Architecture class. He told her he liked her hair and four years later they were wed at her parents' farm house in nearby Monroe. They camped out with friends for their honeymoon, and spent the next few years moving from California to Memphis to Jackson and, finally, home to the Holler, where he and Florence built a 12x24 cabin at the edge of the woods down the hill from his fa¬ther's house. They ran Gib’s chicken farm to¬gether for a year before Darnell returned to drawing houses.
The family grew and the Holler did too, with three boys and a newer, bigger house for the family, plus a couple more for nephew Kenneth and eldest son Fritz. His passion for buildings eventually gave way to one for words. He wrote profiles for the Plaindealer in the late '80s, of people and places and things. After that he would frequently contribute a Letter to the Ed¬itor, often in the form of a poem, or verse, as he liked to call them. He compiled many of them in a book he titled A Little Lite Verse, which he’d be sure to share with you if you were inter¬ested.
He drew over a hundred houses and wrote hundreds of verses. He came and took score in his notebook at every Little League game and every basketball game his sons took part in. He loved family and friends and getting together, and he loved his time alone. He loved books and music and movies, and words and sounds and pictures. He enjoyed walks up and down the driveway, usually a dog or three at his side, practicing his latest verses, whistling tunes from his youth, collecting rocks that caught his eye, digging ditches that could change the world. He liked to say we're all related, and was often quick to offer an invitation to come over and stay for a spell to family and friends alike.
He is survived by his wife Florence Lillian (Benninghoven); sons Gilbert Fritz (Bonnie) in Ackerman, Bernard Ives (Ann) in Char¬lottesville VA, and Curt Edwin-Bennett (Ser¬ena) in Seattle WA; grandchildren Lillian Vontice, Ada Gully, Louise Tuzson, Lorence Burkely Darnell, and Ives Gene Theodore. His older sister, Neva Nan Blake, lives in Her¬nando. He is preceded in death by brothers Ken¬neth Bernard and Rodney Riddell "Billy;" and his parents Gilbert Gurvis and Mavourneen (Shumaker).
His body was donated to Science through the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He will be remembered by friends and family on Monday, January 29, from 1 to 3 PM, at Antioch Community Church in Reform, where his par¬ents and other loved ones are laid to rest. Come on by and share a story or some fritos. He wouldn’t want any big fuss.
Donations in his honor may be made to Anti¬och Community Church, care of Wesley Gam-mill, 561 Gammill Rd, Ackerman MS 39735.
