Thomas Pettigrew's Mother

Character Key Number: 
1325
Display Name: 
Thomas Pettigrew's Mother
Sort Name: 
Pettigrew, Mother of Thomas
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
No
Biography: 

The mother of the mail rider in "A Name for the City" and again in Requiem for a Nun was "from old Ferginny" (23). When she named her son "Thomas Jefferson Pettigrew," hoping that that famous name might bring her son some "luck," she also indirectly provided the county seat of Yoknapatawpha with its name (23).