Forgiving Father

In Memphis, Tenn. one night last month, Brenton Root, 32, contract investigator for a wholesale house, went to a hotel dance with some friends and his pretty wife, Daisy, 30. There the Roots, who had been living apart for six weeks, got into a quarrel because Mrs. Root resented her husband's attentions to a cigaret girl named Lucille Underwood. Daisy Root returned to her home, where she lived with her 4-year-old son. An hour later, pistol in hand, she entered Brenton Root's ome, awakened him, said, "Look at me, darling," shot him dead. To all of this, according to police, Mrs. Root soon confessed, was charged with murder.

To most newspaper readers, it might have remained just one more killing in the city with one of the nation's highest homicide rates (TIME, May 28, 1934), but for the fact that Brenton Root was the son of a respected Episcopal clergyman--Rev. Dr. Benjamin Franklin Root, rector of St. Simon's Church in Chicago, onetime dean of the Cathedral in Albuquerque, N. Mex. Dr. Root calmly announced he forgave his daughter-in-law for killing his son. Last week he publicly interpolated his feelings in a sermon on forgiveness. While his wife was visiting Daughter-in-law Daisy in the Memphis jail, Dr. Root mounted his pulpit, declared:

"We say in the Apostles' Creed that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. I forgive because I hope I have Jesus Christ in my heart. He said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

"There is no merit in the fact that I forgive this girl. How could a Christian do otherwise? Forgiveness is as natural as the sunrise, or the smile of a little child.

"My heart still bleeds. . . . She will always be my dear, little girl. Somehow, in some way, this must work out for the ultimate good."

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