Author's note: I know there's been debate as to what Jesse's wife's name was, and there are those who believe in Martha and those who believe in Lavinia. Here's my two cents on that subject:
Having recently seen the DVD version of "Enos and Daisy's Wedding" (as opposed to the hacked up version in syndication), I noticed an early scene where Daisy holds the wedding dress up to herself, showing Jesse and the boys what she plans to wear. Jesse comments, "Your Aunt Lavinia was wearin' that when I married her." Towards the end of the show, when she's actually wearing the dress, he gets misty eyed and tells her she looks just like her Aunt Lavinia.
I've also seen "Return of the Ridge Raiders" where Jesse tries to send the boys off to the safety of Aunt Lavinia's and Luke says his uncle hasn't even spoken to her in 20 years.
This leaves me with four possible conclusions:
1) Jesse married his sister (which gives a whole new twist to Daisy's line, "Never stopped anyone in this family before!")
2) He had a sister and a wife by the same name (it happens, though not usually with an unusual name like Lavinia)
3) He and his wife divorced some 20 years ago
4) The original writers on the show were inconsistent
The answer is most likely #4, though #1 makes for an interesting story all on its own.
Anyway, I am of a mind to say that there are continuity flaws throughout the series. When it comes to Jesse's wife's name, pick your favorite. I chose Lavinia because I liked it.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Dukes (not even Lavinia!) or the regulars from the series, and I am not making any money for the dumb things I put them through. The ones I do own are not real nice, but if you want to borrow them you can, just please ask first. Chapter 7 – Saying Goodbye, But Forever
"Now, Bo, we'll let you know the minute we find Luke," Daisy promised him, placing a comforting kiss on his cheek before heading out of the hospital room and back to her car.
"You gonna be okay here alone, son?" Jesse asked gently.
"Yes, sir, I'll be fine," Bo answered.
"Your cousin will be fine, too, you know. He's a strong boy."
"I know that, Uncle Jesse," Bo answered, and feeling Jesse's calloused hand on his shoulder, the youngest Duke reached up to give it a squeeze. "Take care," he added.
The older man nodded and left on the heels of his niece. Leave it to those boys of his to make an old man, who ought to be retired, spend his entire day running around the county. Jesse had been up before the dawn. By now there were only a couple of hours of daylight left, and he was rushing off on yet another wild goose chase. Lord knew, he'd probably still be on the move long after dark.
Once Jesse was gone, Bo laid back on the bed. He hadn't wanted to admit it, but his head more than hurt. The pain was so severe that he wasn't sure his stomach would stay stable, nor was he even seeing clearly, what with the flash bulbs randomly popping in front of his eyes.
Jesse was right, Luke was strong. Not for the first time in his life, Bo wished he was as strong as his cousin.
Family from both sides had converged upon the Duke farm. Years back there'd been more family to mourn those lost; now so many were gone that it seemed as though there were fewer still alive than had passed. All the same, it was a crowded house as the various generations of both Jesse's and Lavinia's kin arrived on the day of the funeral.
The service itself was still hours away, so the numerous children had been sent outside to play, and despite the somber atmosphere, most of them did. Bo was only 6, and even though he was very sad, he found himself quickly swept into a game of marbles. It was quite strange, playing with these children who were supposed to be his "cousins." He knew what cousins were – they lived with you, shared a house, a room and chores with you; they were there when you had birthdays, but also when you had a splinter in your finger and needed tweezers. They fought you over the last piece of pie, and fought the bully that picked on you at school. Luke and Daisy were his cousins. He didn't really know who these other kids were, but they weren't cousins, no matter what the adults tried to tell him.
Bo looked up from the game he'd been playing with some of the other kids to see Luke sitting alone on the porch. He checked for Daisy and saw that she was showing some of the bigger kids the new baby goat. He knew that as long as she had a young animal to fawn over, Daisy would be all right. He wasn't used to Luke being so quiet though. He left the game to sit next to his older cousin.
"Luke? Don'tcha wanna play?"
"Not right now, Bo."
Suddenly the marbles didn't interest the younger boy anymore, either. If Luke wasn't playing, Bo didn't really have a stake in the game. It was only fun to win if he could beat his older cousin.
"Luke, why do we have to have a funeral for Aunt Lavinia?" The process of the day had been explained to Bo, and he understood that his aunt had suddenly taken sick and then died, but he didn't fully grasp what all of this meant. He knew that Luke would explain it to him, though. Sometimes his aunt and uncle would tell him things and he wouldn't really know what they meant, but Luke always found a way to make sure he understood what was going on.
His older cousin looked like he was thinking, so Bo didn't interrupt. He'd get the information as soon as Luke figured out how to say it.
"We had a funeral for our moms and dads, too. You was too little to remember it, but you was there. It's just a way of saying goodbye, but forever, not just like when you say see you later."
"But I don't want to say goodbye to Aunt Lavinia, not forever," Bo said, his chin starting to tremble a little.
"I know, and neither do I, but we gotta." An arm came around Bo's shoulders, but it didn't help much.
"If we didn't have a funeral, we wouldn't have to say goodbye, right? So let's just not have it. Then everything can go back to normal." For the first time in a while, Bo saw a little spark of humor in his cousin's eyes. At least there was one familiar thing in all the strange events of the last few days.
"I wish you was right about that, little cousin. But no matter what we do, Aunt Lavinia's not coming back, just like our moms and dads never came back."
"Oh." Bo felt a storm approaching inside him, and even thought he could hear thunder in his head. He grabbed onto Luke with all his might and cried into his denim clad shoulder. The bigger boy just held onto him until the worst of it had passed. When Bo had cried himself out, Luke took him inside and put him to bed for awhile. As his cousin was sitting with him while he drifted off towards sleep, Bo wished he was more like Luke. The older boy was so strong, he hadn't cried at all.
Awhile later, the whole group that had gathered headed off for the church. Bo was well rested from his nap, and when they got to the service, he was a little restless. He still didn't really understand everything that was happening, but he did know he couldn't make it stop, no matter how hard he tried. So instead he started playing with his corduroy pants, pretending that plush stripes were roadways and his fingers were a car. After a while of doing this, he was surprised when Luke took his hands. His older cousin didn't admonish him though, just held on until the blonde stopped fidgeting.
Just as he always had been, Bo was relieved to get out of the church. It was bad enough to sit in school Monday through Friday. Being still on a Sunday just didn't seem fair. Though Bo didn't think this was Sunday. He hadn't been to school for a few days so he didn't remember.
Everyone got into their own cars, but they all headed in the same direction, in a line. The little blonde boy didn't know why they did this instead of heading home to dinner like they normally would after church. He guessed that sit-still time was probably not entirely over, a thought that didn't thrill him. But by now he understood that he couldn't control any of what was happening today, so he just looked out the window.
At least Uncle Jesse's pickup was near the front of the line, so Bo could see what was going on. It looked like Sheriff Coltrane was going with them, too, in his squad car. He would rush up ahead to an intersection and stop traffic so that the entire funeral procession could pass. After all the cars were through the crossroads, the sheriff would zip from the back of the line to the front, passing on the right to get to the next intersection and hold up traffic again.
When they got to the main road, Bo followed Luke's eyes to see that those cars that were not part of the procession were pulling off the road, two wheels in the ditch alongside the blacktop, so they'd be well out of the way. The funeral convoy was on Highway 36, not even in the town of Hazzard, so these were people they didn't know. Bo noticed that the motorists had not only pulled over, but gotten out of their cars, the men removing their hats and placing them over their hearts. That was all Bo saw before he heard a strange sound beside him.
Luke was crying.
Bo didn't know what to do, but it didn't matter, because everything he tried didn't work. Luke cried during the rest of the drive to the cemetery, and then through the entire graveside service. Though he threw his own handful of dirt into the grave, Luke did not stop crying. No gentle words nor physical comfort offered seemed to reach the boy, and when the family that was now four instead of five finally got back home, Jesse took Luke off to bed, thinking he was probably just overtired from taking care of Bo and Daisy. The patriarch, suddenly seeming much older, admonished Bo to leave his older cousin alone.
With all of the more distant family now gone, the house seemed unusually quiet. Though he was currently confined to the living room, Bo could hear that Luke was still crying in their bedroom. As soon as his saddened uncle slipped outside to tend to the chores, Bo deliberately disobeyed his guardian's orders and headed for the room he shared with Luke. Even Daisy's threats of telling on him did not stop the boy.
"Lukas? How come you're cryin'?" If it was anyone else, Bo's question might have been foolish, but this was Luke; he never cried.
As miserable as he was, the dark haired child didn't try to chase his cousin away, even when Bo sat on the edge of his bed, uninvited.
"All those people on the side of the road…" Luke's voice broke and Bo watched him swallow a few times, trying to get control of himself. "They didn't even know Aunt Lavinia, and they was payin' their respects to her. How come she had to die before people could realize just how special she was?"
Bo didn't understand the question, really, and he was pretty sure that he couldn't answer it to Luke's satisfaction anyway. So he just climbed all the way up into the bed with the older boy.
"I don't know," he said as his older cousin reached for him. The boys put their arms around one another and cried themselves to sleep.
They weren't kids anymore, either of them. Luke was just as likely to try to take care of himself now as he had always been, but Bo knew something about his cousin that no one else did. Though he seemed strong as an ox, and twice as stubborn, the older Duke boy had his vulnerabilities. When he was in trouble, he needed the partner that understood those weaknesses so he could counter-balance them with his own strengths. If he was in danger, Luke needed Bo.
And, as an adult, Bo realized he did not need Jesse to sign him out of the hospital. He was sure glad that the nurse had intervened when she did, keeping him from having to promise his uncle that he'd stay put. The aching young man gingerly pulled the IV from his arm and forced himself upright to begin the search for his clothes, a task made rather challenging by the way the room insisted on whirling.