Lightfoot: Greatest Last Name EVER

My brother called me a couple weeks ago and told me that I had to check out this online Facebook group that he got invited to called: Lightfoot: Greatest Last Name EVER. I've read all 88 posts and the Lightfeet are really sort of freaked out that there are so many of us around.

I didn't fully appreciate my last name growing up, and now I know that there were hundreds of other girls, even other Sarah Lightfoots, that got the same drill as I did. No, I'm not related to Gordon Lightfoot. Do I look Native American? Heavyfoot? Heavyankle? Lighthand? Lightweight? Heard them all. Apparently we all have.

Above is the English-origin Lightfoot family coat of arms. Rooted in the Anglo-Saxon culture, Lightfoot was a family name given someone who was a swift runner. Not unfitting for me. Some of the first settlers of this family settled in Virigina in the early 1600's. There's even a town called Lightfoot, VA. Slaves often took the surnames of their owners, hence the significant black Lightfoot contingent. There are Native American Lightfeet in the US, many of them Cherokee.

I learned of a conspiracy that we Lightfoots might be royal descendents of King George III. Legend has it that he secretly married Hannah Lightfoot and bore a son, who would be the rightful heir of the throne.

I came to view it as a really cool last name and considered for awhile not changing my name when I got married. David supported the idea and actually encouraged it, but I legally dropped my given middle name (Louise) and took Lightfoot as my middle name. The eve before my wedding day, as I was getting closer to wrapping my mind around officially becoming a Cooley, my mother in law approached me at the rehearsal at the church. She said, "Well, you're about to become an Oglesby, aren't you." I about freaked. But the truth is, I'm every bit as much an Oglesby as I am a Cooley. And I'm every bit as much a Johnson as I am a Lightfoot. That's ultimately why I chose to legally change my name. Technically, I'm Sarah Louise Johnson Lightfoot Oglesby Cooley. And that's just too damn long to write on my checks.

I never imagined that my last name would land me jobs in somewhat Affirmative Action/quota fashion, but that's what happened when I applied to be a VISTA Volunteer. After interviewing in Toccoa, GA, in person, and feeling that placement wasn't right for me, I accepted a placement sight unseen in DeFuniak Springs, FL. All I knew about the area and what I'd be doing was what the recruiter told me over the phone. All they knew about me was from my application materials and the phone interview.

I showed up one November morning to the Community College satellite center with my standard long blonde hair and fair skin. I introduced myself, and the first words uttered by my soon to be new mentor was, "You're Sarah Lightfoot?" Only later would I find out that they were fully expecting a dark-skinned, dark-haired Native American young woman to round out the diversity of the VISTA team. You know, color it up a bit. How did I learn this? David told me, of course. Guess I blew that one.