My roots are in Trussville Alabama back when it was a small town. Mom was from Birmingham, Alabama and Dad was from Vermont. Having parents from different parts of the country helped me to develop a broad view of what I read and heard. I did well in school and received an Advanced Academic Diploma from Hewitt High School.

During school I was the irritating student who always had questions for the teacher. I wanted to know the subject thoroughly. By knowing the details, I could see the whole better, understanding how it all connects.

Although I was always very interested in grammar, I didn’t like literature.  To this day, novels don’t interest me. Generally, to me, true stories or self-help books are of greater interest. I often say, "I like to live in the real world," and "News is funnier than fiction."

According to a "Skills and Aptitude" test I took in junior high school, I should have become an auto mechanic, medical doctor or engineer. I rated highest in mechanical ability and lowest on spelling. Although greatly surprised, I did not pay it any attention. At this time I wanted to be a ournalist.

During high school, I started working wherever I could and showed little interest in high school extra curricular activities. After graduation, I chose not to go to college, believing I could make it by being bright, willing to learn and willing to work. This turned out to be true, but not having a degree did hold me back many times, and it would have been an even greater disadvantage had I not gotten married at 18 to a well established man.

The winds of opportunities landed me at Rich’s Department Store as a part-time trainer / salesperson. I went from full-time work to part-time because of my interest in volunteering to help people learn more about the Bible.

After seven years at Rich’s, a company restructure did away with my position, and I opted for the severance package. Over the next year, I went from job to job looking for what suited my needs. At this point I was married and living in Clay. I kept saying, " I want to work close to home." I realized that if I wanted to work close to home (Center Point, Pinson, Clay or Trussville) others probably would too and would like to know what jobs are available in this area. So, with the support of my family and on a shoe-string budget, I started an employment newsletter called "Jobs Are Here!" This was successful for over six years. In the seventh year, the recession of 2001 made keeping the newsletter alive too demanding, taking me away from my volunteer work. I made the difficult decision to close the paper down.

After taking a couple of months off to clear my head, I started considering working part-time again. By coincidence, I decided to look at the "City of Clay" website. How surprised I was to see all that was going on in Clay. It occurred to me that I didn’t know about it since we didn’t have a newspaper out here. I still had some paper and stands from when I published "Jobs Are Here!" I know many of the business owners since I have lived in Clay for over 15 years. So I started work in February and the first issue came out March 8, 2002. Who would have thought that at age 36 I would finally become the journalist I wanted to be in junior high?

After over seven years of being the editor and publisher of a newspaper and fighting some major First Amendment battles, I decided in August 2009 to stop publication of Clay News. I am now using my communication skills to tell the stories I want to tell instead of the stories that need to be done. If you are interested in hiring me for your communication needs, call 205-680-6890.