Hello and welcome to my official author's website - a place for you to encounter and hopefully enjoy the things I have written over the years about faith, family, and history.
I am a native and lifelong resident of Watauga County, North Carolina, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, where many of my ancestors settled by the 1790s, resulting in some of my family having been here for eight or more generations. This rich and lengthy heritage sparked my early interest in genealogy and local history and, at the age of eleven (quite a few moons ago!), I embarked on a quest to write books about each of my four grandparents' families. I published three of those over a period of decades and have one more to complete. Beyond these genealogical endeavors, I have also delved into other aspects of my county's history (including a well-known murder case), resulting in the publication of a few other books, ideally with more to follow. Additionally, I have composed quite a few personal reflections about Bible passages, my faith in Jesus Christ, and the Christian life.
I am a graduate of Appalachian State University in my hometown of Boone, North Carolina (BA in Political Science/MA in Education with a social studies concentration) and also worked at the university for nine years before being employed at Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization, where I have worked for nearly thirty years.
Perhaps because I'm blood kin to a number of craftsmen, musicians, and storytellers, I have always needed and enjoyed creative outlets. Aside from writing, I have dabbled through the years in art (pencil drawings in particuar), residential design/decor (enjoying my log home, which sits on part of my maternal grandparents' former farm and has an inspiring view of the mountains), collecting and refinishing antiques, amateur photography, and even a bit of cooking.
I have also had the privilege to travel quite extensively, visiting more than 60 countries through both personal and work-related trips, and I have appreciated the opportunity to expand my worldview in the process. In the words of Mark Twain, “Travel is fatal to prejuidce, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.... Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Again, welcome! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out. I am glad you are here.
Hello and welcome to my official author's website - a place for you to encounter and hopefully enjoy the things I have written over the years about faith, family, and history.
I am a native and lifelong resident of Watauga County, North Carolina, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, where many of my ancestors settled by the 1790s, resulting in some of my family having been here for eight or more generations. This rich and lengthy...
On a cold and snowy night in 1972, three members of one family were murdered in their house on the outskirts of the small town of Boone, North Carolina. Strangled and placed headfirst into a water-filled bathtub, the victims were Bryce Durham, 51, owner of a local car dealership; his wife, Virginia Durham, 44, who provided clerical support for...
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Available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions.
Amazon rating:
AWARDS:
2025 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards Gold Medalist for Nonfiction: True Crime
2025 Literary Global Independent Author Award for Best True Crime Book
2025 National Indie Excellence Award for Best True Crime Book
2025 Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird First Place Book...
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Prior to its formation in 1849, Watauga County was a hunting ground for the Cherokee and part of the trail blazed by frontiersman Daniel Boone, for whom the county seat was later named. Primarily settled by whites after the Revolutionary War, many of the county’s earliest families came to the Appalachians from the Piedmont region of North...
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Mary Frances was a poor girl from El Paso, who lived in a shack with her brother and their parents. Her father was a carpenter, who occasionally shot and brought home jackrabbits for their supper, and her mother took in laundry for extra income.
Toward the end of the Great Depression, the family moved from Texas to California. Mary Frances was seven at the time. A bit tomboyish, she preferred dungarees to dresses. As she entered her teen years, she admittedly had no money, no taste, and no...
Do you remember the comedic genius of Nathan Birnbaum and Mendel Berlinger? Or the graceful movements of Frederick Austerlitz and Virginia McMath? How about the cinematic offerings of Lucille LeSeuer, Issur Demsky, Frances Gumm, and Bernard Schwartz?
No? What about (in order) George Burns, Milton Berle, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford, Kirk Douglas, Judy Garland, and Tony Curtis? I get that only those of a certain age who are reading this may recognize these stage names, but to my...
Once upon a time, I got my skull cracked.
It was not an accident or an attack but a premeditated skull-cracking that I assented to with foreknowledge.
Someone recently asked me how long it had been since said skull-cracking. “Around seven years?” she asked. “At least seven years,” I responded. Later that evening, I dug into my archives to pinpoint the timeframe and was shocked to discover it was FIFTEEN years ago this month.
In January 2011, I was the proud recipient of a craniotomy. The...