A Look Back

Each year I re-print the story of the Peggs tornado that I wrote for The Tahlequah Daily Press in 1985. This story is important because it is a part of our history. It is a sad story, but it is also full of human compassion and courage. We should not forget the many whose lives […]

A Land of Many Springs

A Land of Many Springs

My mother was born in 1906. She had many memories of Cherokee County, the way it was when she was a child. One of the things she remembered was the abundance of fresh, clean water. These are her words, her story as she told it to me: Green country used to be a land of […]

The Bull and His Horns

The Bull and His Horns

Remembering happy times past is wonderful, isn’t it? So is reading. Sometimes when events swirling around me get to be too much, I like to take a trip back a hundred years or so  to Etta Bend, the way it was as a prosperous farming community when my mother was a little girl. I like […]

The Old Umbrella Oak

The Old Umbrella Oak

  A large oak stands in front of the house that belonged to my parents. It is so tall and its limbs spread so wide that anyone standing under it during a rain is sheltered, as if by a giant umbrella. The tree is old and has seen many changes. A busy street a few […]

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

  Many of us have been experiencing rain, rain, and more rain. And, flooding. Flood records are being broken as creeks and rivers overflow and dams are strained to capacity. What a wet month! A few years ago, when I was writing the fourth Darcy and Flora cozy, Grave Heritage, Tahlequah experienced the wettest July […]

When the Storms Roared Through

When the Storms Roared Through

  Another past President has died. President George H. W. Bush died last night in Texas. It’s always sad to see someone go and remember the times that were associated with him. Indeed, the storms roared through last night. Tornadoes touched down in places. A friend in Oklahoma had major damage from the tornado, but, […]