People in small towns do talk. They probably could not keep gossip about Jack's death from spreading, either.
Yes, I'm quoting myself here.
Why? Something occurred to me last night in the shower--where I do my best thinking.
It occurred to me that this "people will talk" idea might also be used to argue against the the idea that Lureen was already pregnant with someone else's child when she met Jack. Someone posted, above, somewhere, that for the "eight months old" line to work when Ennis and Jack were reunited in September 1967, Lureen would have had to have been about three months along when she met Jack.
Well, if she were that far along, wouldn't she have been "showing" in July 1966? Lureen clearly wasn't. But here's my point. Even if they don't drink coffee
surely Texans can count to nine. Jack and Lureen and Mr. and Mrs. Newsome don't exist in a vacuum. When the baby was born, the whole town would have know that it couldn't possibly be Jack's. Think of the scandal.