MYSTERY SOLVED

From Mary Kay James, in answer to my question about what her relationship (and thus that of cousin Ann Shannon and half the county) is to Arkansas’ newest State Supreme Court Justice, and first woman elected to the post, Annabell Clinton Imber (see photo a couple of stories down):

Annabell's grandmother, Edith Van Patten Marsh, and my granddaddy, I.B. Van Patten, were brother and sister. So we knew each other growing up. I am about 6 years older than she is. She and my sister, Becca, are about the same age.

I will sleep better knowing that. I HATE a mystery.