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Song: Love American Style
Joe: Boy, I remember that song. I also remember having a suit like that. That‘s a happy song from a happier time.
The Cowsill family was the real-life inspiration for the television show “The Partridge Family.” Tonight, more than eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged our Gulf Coast, one of their own, New Orleans resident Barry Cowsill, still missing. And Barry is just one of the thousands.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there are still more than 1,500 cases of fractured families out there that have not been reunited.
With me now from Nashville is Barry‘s sister, Susan Cowsill.
Susan, thanks for being with us tonight.
When is the last time you heard from your brother?
Susan: Well, he left me a message on my phone machine Wednesday—or, rather, the Thursday morning at 2:00 in the morning, after the Sunday.
And he had left several messages, didn‘t get them until that Thursday, however, just kind of explaining what was going on. And he was pretty—pretty worried and wanted us to come and pick him up. I don‘t think he understood that—that we couldn‘t.
Joe: You know, it was such a—it‘s been so difficult for you to figure out where he is, and one of the reasons it‘s been difficult is, there‘s not a centralized Web site or a centralized agency or a centralized clearinghouse...
Susan: That‘s right.
Joe: ... where a family member can look for one of their loved ones if they haven‘t reconnected with.
Talk about the frustration there and what the government needs to do, so you can find your brother and others can find their loved ones.
Susan: OK, well, first of all, you don‘t want to get me going on what the government should be doing.
But we will—regarding this, I have wondered myself why there isn‘t just one central location. I mean, it seems like it would be pretty easy to organize that. I understand there‘s a lot of missing people from other situations. But this one, you know, if we could just get it all connected under one umbrella, I think we would have a lot more success finding these guys.
And it‘s very frustrating. And, I mean, you almost don‘t know where to begin. You don‘t know where to begin to look, you know?
Joe: It‘s so frustrating.
Let me ask you, there are people out there obviously watching this. If they see your brother, how do they make contact with you? How do they make—if they have seen your brother over the past several weeks, how do they get in touch with you?
Susan: Well, they can always go online to cowsill.com, because there‘s a little fortress of Cowsill fans, and the family. And we kind of all communicate through that Web site. So, if anybody sees him, that‘s where you can go to let us know that you have.
Joe: All right, very good.
Susan: Yes.
Joe: Thank you so much, Susan. Greatly appreciate it.
Susan: Yes, indeed.
Joe: Best of luck to you. And our thoughts and prayers are with you.
And why don‘t you take us to break with a song?
Susan: All right. This is a song. It‘s a Katrina song. And you can hear it on bluecornmusic.com.
Song: Crescent City Snow
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