D. Gorton, a partner in this project, grew up in Greenville, Mississippi. His father, Doy, was born in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1900, the family moving to the Mississppi Delta town of Marks when he was a child. D.'s mother, Jennie Lee (nee Wharton), was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. D. grew up travelling throughout the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta, visiting family and helping his father, who provided goods to plantation commissaries, country stores and small town groceries. His mother became a nationally noted painter in the years after his father died in 1967, with works at the White House and the Smithsonian. (D. Gorton collection. Photo ca. 1925)