Daisy Garner

[River]

In the episode "The Moonshiner," Daisy Garner returns to Waltons Mountain to return John Boys engagement ring. She decides to stay in Mary Ellen's house and Corabeth calls Daisy's daughter, Melissa, a love child. All of the Waltons are very accepting of Daisy and her daughter and Olivia gets upset with Corabeth for calling the little girl a love child. I am just wondering, how acceptable was it back then for a good Baptist to accept an unmarried woman with a child? I think that Olivia would not have accepted this, being a good Baptist as she was. Anyone else think that was more a '70's influence than the actual time period?

[Deleted]

As far as I know, a woman like Daisy could not a rent a place, or even make enough money to support herself let alone her child. The child would have had to be place for adoption so a good married woman could raise her proper. Some feel that this approach was akin to stealing a child from its mother.

[bucky]

I think it probably varied depending on the community. In Canada I don't think there were legal consequences like you've described, although it sure had negative social consequences in most small towns. The children were considered illegitimate which is a bad enough moniker to carry around in life. I wonder if the hill people of Virginia were more accepting than most simply because their isolation would make marriage less accessible. That's just my speculation though. Babies born out of wedlock were baptized in the R.C. religion in the 1800s so I imagine Baptists weren't too much different.

[clb458]

Well a "good" Baptist would be a non-judgmental, loving, forgiving person. A "good" Baptist follows the example of Christ. "He who is without sin, cast the first stone".
I also think it depends on the community the woman lives in. My mother was in a similar situation at the that same period of time and had a lot of support from those who knew her. Yeah, there were those who rejected her, but she had a lot of support too.

[cheryl5830]

I loved CLB458's answer. Excellent it definately depends on if you were CHrist following, no condeming there.!

[River]

I think the character of Olivia has really changed from the first season. Olivia tolerated the circus people and the Baldwin sisters in season one, but then grew more warm and compassionate in each following season.

[jimblue]

I like clb458's response also. Albeit in several of the episodes various characters certainly strayed from being a good Baptist. I liked Daisy and it is too bad she did not marry John Boy.

[sambda]

Just a quick factoid. The Daisy actress is called Deirdre Lenihan. On one of her episodes, her first name manages to be credited as "Diedre". Two mistakes in such a short name must be some sort of record!