George eventually lived down his wild reputation. (It was wild, of course, only by the standards of his pious family). He taught for a while in a backcountry school, then entered Vanderbilt and graduated with a master’s degree. He met a young woman named Dana Slaughter and asked her to marry him. By 1899 Alex had hired George to teach math at the college, this time without opposition. But then, in August of 1900, George fell off a telephone pole and aggravated the old injury to his leg. (He and a friend had started a phone company in Conway, and apparently George was installing the lines himself.) A doctor diagnosed cancer and broke the appalling news that the only way to save George’s life was to amputate his leg at the hip.
Four days before Christmas, George, Alex, their mother and Lizzie took the train to Winchester, Tenn., for George and Dana’s wedding. Alex performed the simple ceremony, and then they all boarded another train for Nashville. George went under the knife on Dec. 23, expecting to come out of surgery minus one of his legs. Instead, the doctors discovered that the “tumor” was only an enlarged blood vessel. George emerged from the anesthetic and said a few words to his new bride. It seemed that the story would have a happy ending.
And then, in the early hours of Christmas Eve, George began to fail. The family was called in, but before they could get to the hospital, he was dead. They brought the body back to Conway for burial.
Alex's departure and return