[NFB-Blind-Crafters] Linda blessing game former member

[Dixie]

Wow, Jill, thank you for sharing Linda’s story.

 

 

 

Dixie 🏖️ 🐚

 

From: NFB-Blind-Crafters <nfb-blind-crafters-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jill Rossiter via NFB-Blind-Crafters
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2026 1:02 PM
To: NFB-Blind-Crafters at nfbnet.org
Cc: Jill Rossiter <jillbilly4 at comcast.net>
Subject: [NFB-Blind-Crafters] Linda blessing game former member

 

Hi, not sure if you all will remember Linda, but she was a vital part of Krafters for many years. Her daughter posted this story on Facebook and I thought I would share it.

 

 

After hearing all these stories about Dolly, about how she became incredibly famous but never forgot where she came from and continued to give back, I have an Appalachian story I would love to tell as well.

 

I did not even hear this story until 2011. Some of the details are vague now, and many of the people who could fill in the missing pieces are no longer here.

 

But the meat of the story is still there.

 

And I think now is the right time to share it.

 

Back in the 1950s, there was a young girl growing up in the southern part of the Appalachian region, in Walker County, Georgia.

 

She was the third of four children and had three brothers. Her father was a carpenter. Her mother was a housewife. The family lived in a little two bedroom house on York Road in LaFayette, Georgia.

 

They did not have much money.

 

Then, when this little girl was about eight years old, she was playing softball and suffered a terrible accident that cost her her vision.

 

Her parents were suddenly faced with an incredibly difficult decision.

 

Their little girl needed a specialized education. She needed to learn not only academics, but how to navigate a world she could no longer see, how to become independent, and eventually how to build a life for herself.

 

That meant sending their eight year old daughter away from home to the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon.

 

And somewhere along the way, a man named Charlie Elzer Loudermilk became involved.

 

Now, Charlie Elzer Loudermilk is about as country and Appalachian sounding a name as you can get. 😂

 

Charlie came from very humble beginnings himself.

 

He grew up poor in northeast Alabama around Henagar and Sand Mountain. His family farmed, and he knew firsthand what it meant to come from a family that did not have much.

 

But Charlie and his brother Ira could sing.

 

And I mean they could really sing.

 

The brothers started performing together when they were young, rooted heavily in gospel and country music.

 

Eventually, Charlie Elzer Loudermilk became better known by another name.

 

Charlie Louvin.

 

And Charlie and Ira became the Louvin Brothers.

 

That name may be much more familiar.

 

The Louvin Brothers became members of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1950s and went on to become one of the most influential country and gospel harmony acts of their generation. Their music influenced artists who came long after them.

 

Charlie had gone from poverty in the southern Appalachian region to a level of success and stability that probably seemed unimaginable when he was a boy.

 

But apparently, he never completely forgot where he came from.

 

Somehow, Charlie became connected to this little girl and her family.

 

I wish I could tell you exactly how.

 

I do not remember what the connection was, who knew whom, or exactly how Charlie learned about her situation. That part of the story has been lost with time.

 

What was passed down in my family was that Charlie Loudermilk helped with the cost of sending this little Appalachian girl away to receive the specialized education she needed.

 

He did not have to do that.

 

There was no Facebook fundraiser.

 

There was no GoFundMe.

 

There was no viral post asking strangers for help.

 

There was simply a little girl whose entire life had changed, a family without much money trying to give their daughter a future, and somebody who had begun finding success who apparently remembered what it was like to come from very little.

 

And that little girl went to Macon.

 

She learned how to navigate life without her sight.

 

She received an education.

 

She grew up.

 

She went to college.

 

She eventually went to work for the State of Tennessee, where she worked with people who were blind or visually impaired.

 

She went into their homes and showed them how to navigate their new reality.

 

How to remain independent.

 

How to adapt their homes and routines.

 

How to do everyday things again.

 

How to live again after losing something that had changed almost everything.

 

And she eventually retired from the State of Tennessee in 2020.

 

If you have not figured it out by now, that little Appalachian girl was my mother, Linda Green Blasingim.

 

And I never knew the story about Charlie Louvin helping her until Charlie died in 2011.

 

That is what makes me think about this differently now.

 

Charlie did not simply help one little girl.

 

That act of kindness kept moving.

 

Because the little girl somebody helped in the 1950s grew up and spent part of her own life helping other people facing the very same disability.

 

She did not simply give back.

 

She paid it forward.

 

Every person she helped regain some independence was another place where an act of generosity shown decades earlier continued to travel.

 

And maybe that is why hearing all these stories about Dolly has brought this one back to my mind.

 

There is something very Appalachian about remembering where you came from.

 

I am not romanticizing poverty. There is nothing romantic about struggling to feed your family or wondering how you are going to provide what your child needs.

 

But there is something about them there mountains.

 

Sometimes people have very little, but they still find something to give.

 

And sometimes somebody makes it out, becomes successful, maybe even becomes famous, and reaches back toward the people who are still struggling.

 

Charlie Louvin became a country music legend.

 

That little blind girl from the two bedroom house on York Road never became famous.

 

But somebody saw that she needed a chance.

 

He helped give her one.

 

And she grew up and gave that chance to other people over and over again.

 

Maybe that is one of the most beautiful things about charity.

 

You may never know how far one act of kindness will travel.

 

Sometimes it does not end with the person you helped.

 

Sometimes it keeps going for generations.

Jill

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