Governor Candidate’s Family Worked For P. T. Barnum

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

That headline grabbed you, right.

It’s absolutely 100 percent accurate.

 

The editor who taught me how to write headlines would be proud.

“You gotta write a hed (that’s the way newspaper folks spell it)  that drags the reader into the story, he said.

Florida’s Chief Executive Officer Alex Sink, who is considering a race for governor next year, is the great granddaughter of the famed P. T. Barnum Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker.

                 

Chang and Eng                Alex Sink

.

Here is part of an article from the St. Petersburg Times three years ago:

“Sink is the great-granddaughter of “the twins,” as she calls them. She grew up in the house Chang and Eng built, and speaks of them both with unmistakable pride and with a little trepidation.

She speaks of their commitment to education, intellectualism and the business savvy for a couple of P.T. Barnum circus attractions to decide to cut out the middleman to make enough money to become farmers.

Then she acknowledges the trepidation.

Strangers would come to see her house growing up. On the streets of Mount Airy, people would sometimes stop and ask the little girl with the hint of oriental features, “Are you one of the Bunkers?””

The entire story is here.

I find it an interesting sidelight on the politician who could be our first female governor.



4 Responses to “Governor Candidate’s Family Worked For P. T. Barnum”

  1. Dear Buddy says:

    You’ve had your fun and now I hope you will drop this subject because it’s frankly tasteless. People have about as much control over who their great grandparents were as they do whether they’re born Siamese twins. Perhaps we should do as much research on the great grandparents of current, long time Floridians and resurrect a thing or two…that doesn’t quite square. Alex Sink is a fine person and irrespective of where her political career goes, the subject of her great grandmother’s sexual life is really outside the borders of appropriate discourse. Or it should be.

  2. Democrat says:

    This has got to be one of the most interesting things ever written on this blog.

  3. Marty Rubinstein says:

    BROWARD BEAT BLOGGER BERT UNCOVERED AS SEXAGENARIAN

    The retired Sun Sentinel reporter turned Blogger, our own BERT NEVINS turned 61 this month.

    And folks, he’s a SEXagenarian to boot. 

    I have the proof.

    Nothing of course, to do with activities behind closed doors. He’s just in his 60’s like I will be soon enough.

    But our ENQUIRING blogger who is neither GLOBE trotting nor on a WEEKLY WORLD status is now using headline grabbers that have little to do with the real stories.

    Woah! Step backwards for a moment…

    Did I say BERT?

    Yup. That’s his real name.

    Fret not, Bert. My middle name is MURRAY.

  4. maxwell says:

    Being that “St. Petersburg Times” had chose to omit part of Alex Sink’s “proud heritage” I have provided a bit more information.

    Chang Eng Bunker (1811-74)

    “In that same year they became American citizens and settled in North Carolina. They took the name Bunker, and in 1843 married two sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Ann Yates. During their marriages, Eng had 11 children and Chang 10. They ran two households, and became wealthy plantation owners, known for their brutality towards their enslaved workers.”

    http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/changengbunker.aspx

    “I was taught to be very proud about my heritage and I am.”