Delbert Birdsong

Delbert Birdsong is Miss Birdie’s youngest son, a Florida resident whose sudden return to her Memphis home turns her private affairs into a family conflict. After learning that her will concerns a fortune of roughly twenty million dollars, he questions Rudy Baylor’s role in the household and asserts that he and his brother will manage their mother’s business. His presence brings Miss Birdie the attention and concern of her sons, but it also leaves Rudy wondering whether that care will protect her or restrict her freedom to change her will.

Identity and Return

Delbert is in his late fifties and has been away from his mother for years. Rudy recalls that Miss Birdie had not seen him in three years and that he had neither called nor written. Delbert arrives from Florida with his wife, Vera, who has a key that she says Miss Birdie gave her. When Rudy returns to the apartment he rents on Miss Birdie’s property, he finds Vera inside, looking around. She explains that she is visiting Birdie and tells Rudy that Birdie wants to see him.

Delbert is waiting at the kitchen table when Rudy enters the house. Papers lie before him, and he introduces himself as Birdie’s youngest son. Rudy describes him as a man trying hard to look younger, with permed and dyed hair, conspicuous sideburns, gold-rimmed glasses, and bracelets. This sharply drawn appearance is filtered through Rudy’s irritation: Delbert acts as if he owns the place, while Rudy insists that the apartment is his private residence and that he pays rent. Their first exchange establishes a contest over authority in the house before either man has explained what he wants.

The Will and the Dispute with Rudy

The central source of tension is Miss Birdie’s will. Delbert asks Rudy whether he has been interfering with it and whether he has prepared a new one. Rudy refuses to discuss their confidential legal relationship. He recognizes the document on the table as Miss Birdie’s most recent will, apparently prepared by her former lawyer. It directs roughly twenty million dollars and, as Rudy recalls, leaves Delbert two million.

The discovery alarms Rudy because Miss Birdie had consistently maintained that her sons did not know about her money. Delbert has evidently spent hours examining the will, but Rudy cannot tell how he obtained it; he believes Miss Birdie would not have handed it over willingly. He also worries that Delbert and Vera might have entered his apartment and accessed his own copy of the will, which he keeps in a file under his bed. The copy appears to remain where he left it, but the encounter makes him fear that he may himself have breached Miss Birdie’s privacy by keeping it there.

Delbert treats Rudy’s refusal to answer as evasiveness and objects to a lawyer living on his mother’s property. Rudy replies that he is Miss Birdie’s tenant, that the apartment has a locked door, and that Delbert has no right to enter it. When Delbert presses him again about a new will, Rudy directs him to ask his mother. Miss Birdie does not respond to the confrontation; when Rudy calls to her, she eventually turns up the television. Delbert leaves without learning from Rudy whether her will has changed.

The Family Takes Charge

Delbert soon gathers the rest of the family around Miss Birdie. Two rental cars appear beside her Cadillac, and Delbert introduces Rudy to his brother Randolph and Randolph’s wife, June. Vera is also present. Delbert says that he and Randolph are there to help their mother and that they do not want her taken advantage of. When Rudy asks who is taking advantage of her, Delbert begins to answer, but Randolph reframes the accusation as concern about her affairs.

The brothers’ return changes Miss Birdie’s mood. As Randolph speaks, Rudy watches her face brighten: her sons are asking questions, making demands, and presenting themselves as her protectors. Rudy believes she is pleased to have them there, despite her apparent dislike of her daughters-in-law. The moment complicates his suspicion of the family’s intentions. Their interest has followed the discovery of the will, but their presence also gives a lonely woman the attention of her children. Delbert’s claim to be acting on her behalf thus carries both a plausible family concern and the pressure of an inheritance newly known to its beneficiaries.

Delbert also questions Rudy’s tenancy. He says their mother has no lease with Rudy and notes that the rent is low; June agrees. Rudy points out that Miss Birdie has not complained and refuses to argue further. He returns to his apartment, locks the door, and later reconstructs how Delbert and Vera may have found the will and contacted Randolph. That reconstruction is Rudy’s suspicion rather than confirmed fact, but it shapes his view of Delbert’s sudden transformation into a concerned son.

Florida and the Uncertain Farewell

After the family has been staying at the house, Rudy finds Randolph waiting for him on the patio. Randolph says Miss Birdie flew to Florida that morning to spend time with the family and admits that she might not return. He tells Rudy that he and Delbert will look after her business from then on. Delbert is not present for this conversation, but Randolph describes the brothers’ shared plan and speaks for their new role in managing their mother’s affairs.

The brothers offer Rudy a rent-free arrangement: he can remain in the apartment, look after the house and grounds, and contact them if anything major needs attention. Randolph says Miss Birdie considers Rudy trustworthy and has praised his work around the property. Rudy accepts. Randolph also gives him the house keys and contact information for the insurance agent and alarm company, along with the brothers’ address and telephone number. He says he will drive Miss Birdie’s Cadillac to Florida the next day and that she will stay with him near Tampa, where she will have a guest room and family nearby.

The offer gives Rudy a place to stay and turns his informal caretaking into an explicit responsibility, but it also confirms that Miss Birdie has been taken away from the home she shared with him. Rudy feels the loss of a friend and suspects that her sons will keep her under their control so she cannot alter her will. The narrative does not establish that Delbert intends to confine or deceive his mother; that fear belongs to Rudy’s interpretation of the family’s conduct. Delbert’s significance lies in this unresolved tension: he arrives as a son who has long been absent, claims the authority of a protector, and becomes part of the family arrangement that removes Miss Birdie from Rudy’s daily life while placing her fortune at the center of everyone’s concern.