All in the Family: “Roots” author Alex...

All in the Family: “Roots” author Alex Haley was the guest of honor during the weekend at the first Black Family Reunion staged in his hometown of Memphis, Tenn. Attended by an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people, the celebration ended Sunday with services at area churches. “This reunion celebration feels to me like a great big church supper,” Haley said. “We don’t know each other as well here as we might have in smaller communities, but the more occasions we have like this, the more all of us . . . will be strengthened.”

Lighten Up: Baltimore contractor Donald E. Keister, 30, is white but he wants some of the city contracts set aside for minorities. While city officials grant that Keister certainly is in the minority, they have rejected his demands. At his 640-pound weight, the contractor maintains he is a minority of one but officials say the preference law was to help women and members of races who have suffered discrimination--not overweight people.

The Dark Side: Actress Marriette Hartley’s autobiography belies her sunny image. In the book, Hartley, 50, talks about her father’s suicide, her own suicide attempt at 15, her days as a battered wife and her own alcoholism. Hartley was 23 when her father killed himself, but she and her mother “pretended that nothing had happened.” Years of drinking and binge-eating followed. “I’d drunkenly squat in front of an open refrigerator, an open cupboard, drinking vodka and eating everything, including Purina Cat Chow,” she writes. After psychotherapy and support groups, Hartley says she’s able to face her problems, although “when I talk about the past, my knees shake.”

Expert Witness: Clarence Brandley, who says he’s proof of the power of prayer, made his preaching debut Sunday night at his family’s Baptist church in Houston. Brandley, 38, was released from death row after nine years Jan. 23 when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his 1980 murder conviction. Brandley preached from Acts 12:5: “So Peter was kept in prison but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”