Sharon history: Remembering Buckley

SHARON — The setting for author Sam Tanenhaus’s talk on his book “Buckley: The Life and Revolution that Changed America” was most appropriate.

Speaking Saturday, April 12, at Sharon Town Hall about William F. Buckley Jr., conservative writer and political commentator, Tanenhaus said, “Sharon was the essence of what Buckley did. The origins of the conservative movement are from Sharon.”

The program, titled “The Buckleys of Sharon,” was sponsored by the Sharon Historical Society, and followed the organization’s annual meeting. Investigative journalist Brian Ross served as interviewer. The room was packed with listeners attentive to Tanenhaus’ informative and somewhat humorous delivery.

William F. Buckley Sr. purchased Great Elm, the house on South Main Street, in 1923. It was there he and his wife, Aloise, raised their 10 children. An 11th girl who died in infancy is buried in a Sharon cemetery.

“All WFB learned,” as Tanenhaus referred to him throughout the presentation, “started at that home in Sharon.”

Young Buckley was born in 1925, the middle child of the large family, which also consisted of James Buckley, who went on to become a senator.

While Tanenhaus said delving into long passages about early lives when writing biographies is no longer an accepted practice, he did take some time to read a passage about the senior Buckleys’ beginnings, due to the influence it had on their children. WFB’s father was raised in southern Texas, and spoke as much Spanish as English. That might have served as the basis for his son’s way of speaking, which some believe was an attempt to sound British. Aloise Buckley, whom Tanenhaus labeled “a culturally southern Catholic,” came from New Orleans,

Tanenhaus explained that the book came about because of his previous biography on Whitaker Chambers. Buckley was a source for that work and as they got to know one another, “WFB welcomed me into his life as if I mattered.”

Giving some insight into the man, Tanenhaus noted that almost all of Buckley’s good friends were liberals, which was part of the largeness he displayed. He had an all-encompassing quality about him and was able to charm everyone.

The founder of the National Review magazine and host of the public affairs television program “Firing Line,” “WFB was an orator and debater, going back to his student days. In his first competition, he took the side of defending Charles Lindbergh, who was a Buckley family hero. Another time, around 1939 or ’40, he was part of a debate in nearby Amenia, New York, in which the subject was whether the United States should intervene in the European War. Buckley took an isolationist stance.

Later in life, there were two notable debates in which Buckley participated. In one particularly explosive interchange, author Gore Vidal accused Buckley of being a Nazi and Buckley went wild, losing the match. He also lost in another notable debate with civil rights activist James Baldwin.

A few times during his talk, Tanenhaus made reference to “the Sharon incident.” Finally, Ross asked him to explain what that was. Great Elm was located just across the road from Christ Church Episcopal. Its pastor was the Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter, who happened to be the father of two daughters who went on to become celebrities: Jayne and Audrey Meadows.

It was the spring of 1944, when World War II was ending, but tensions were still high. One Sunday morning, the Rev. Cotter entered the church to find the cushions and altar defiled. The police were called and the tracks led back to Great Elm. It turned out that three Buckley girls and their friends did it as a prank.

There was a court case and the perpetrators plead guilty, resulting in a lot of negative publicity, lawsuits, and daughter Patricia not being accepted to Smith College, which had been a family tradition. Tanenhaus said the episode took on religious overtones, with some believing the Catholic Buckleys purposefully went after a Protestant church.

“That was another reminder of how key this town is,” said the author. “It was a painful event in the life of the Buckley family. But after that, there were signs of atonement.”

The book is due in June.