With Courage and Common Sense: Memoirs from the Older Women's Legacy Circles Book

	Foreword
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	1
Ch. 1	Identity: I Am Not Always the Same Person	19
	Daughter	21
	A Woman Named Billie	21
	My Mother's Daughter	22
	My Father's Daughter	23
	A Story about Who I Am	24
	All the Things I Am ...	25
	I Am Not Always the Same Person	26
	Going to School	27
	A European Youth	30
	Girls Just Didn't Go to College	31
	A Lover of Back Roads	32
	Gifts That I Chose for Myself	32
Ch. 2	Home: I Was Born in East Texas	35
	I Was Born in East Texas ...	37
	How My Mother Got Her Washing Machine	40
	Keeping House for My Mother	44
	Courage and Little Else	46
	Chores, Chores, Endless Chores	46
	A Lesson for Young Brides	50
	Horses, Friends, and Cleaning Out the Stalls	51
	Aunt Hattie's House	53
	Finding Home	54
Ch. 3	Work: Making Something That Lasted	57
	Making Something That Lasted	59
	God Had Given Me a Brain	59
	Making My Own Way	60
	Clerking in My Dad's General Store	61
	"I'm Doing the Best I Can"	62
	District 23, Speedway School	65
	Southern Bele: A Full-Time Job	68
	A Fitting Job	70
	A Cattle Drive	71
	The Autoclave	71
	My Navy Career	72
	An Office in the Courthouse	78
	Things Began to Change	78
	My Silver Star	80
	Just an Old Hooker	81
	Granny's Biscuits	83
Ch. 4	Grandmother and the Pirates	85
	Grandmother and the Pirates	86
	My Father and the Value of Money	86
	Nanoo	87
	Grandma Maggie Helman	88
	My Mother and the Pigeons	89
	An Unexpected Meeting	90
	William and the Outhouse	91
	My Brother Ray	92
	Aminta	93
	We All Loved Each Other	95
	Lillian	96
	Rosy	97
Ch. 5	'Til We Meet Again	101
	'Til We Meet Again	103
	Love Letters	104
	Those Golden Days at Graceland	105
	How My Life Changed	107
	To Do As I Pleased	108
	A Keepsake Penny, and Love Refound	109
	"Hey, Maud Farkle ..."	111
	Do You Believe in Fate?	112
	"I Will Promise You a Rose Garden"	113
Ch. 6	Loss: The Strength to Survive	115
	The Lost Shoes	117
	The Day My Childhood Died	117
	When Daddy Died	119
	The Strength to Survive	121
	Teddy	122
	Changing Places	123
	Renee	125
	The Day Grandma Died	126
	"I Should Have Cried"	127
	Losing Martha	128
	When I Think of Grace ...	129
Ch. 7	Living Fully: I Still Had My Two Dollars	133
	Decoration Day, Fairy Tales, and the Ice Cream Wagon	134
	I Still Had My Two Dollars	135
	Baseball Fever	136
	The Best Christmas	138
	Inside a Prism	139
	My Bonneville Convertible	139
	Kyky the Elephant	140
	Outward Bound	142
	The Happiest Day of My Life	143
	The Day My Daughter Walked	144
	I Felt like a Queen	145
	A Summer with Granny Rylee	145
Ch. 8	Witness: Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Events	149
	Remembering War	151
	Holocaust Survivor	151
	"Where Is Pearl Harbor?"	152
	December 7, 1941	153
	How Would I Measure Up under Fire?	154
	Rommel's Hannibal Connection	154
	Not a Dry Eye in the House	156
	When the Americans Came	157
	The Day Roosevelt Died	158
	An Army Wife in Postwar Germany	160
	An Ordinary Day: An Extraordinary Event	164
	Terror: The Day MLK Died	165
	When the Russians Invaded Czechoslovakia	167
	Four Joyful Days	169
Ch. 9	"I Wish You Could Have Known My Grandma"	171
	Family Books, Family Treasures	172
	The Tapestry	173
	My Grandmother's Dress	174
	My Mother's Ring	175
	My Keepsake Quilt	176
	The Legacy of the Two Lauras	178
	Mama's Writings	179
	The Other Side of Fifty	183
	A Letter to a Young Person	185
	"I Wish You Could Have Known My Grandma"	186
	Biographical Notes	189
	About Story Circle Network	203