Dedication

Ruth Catherine McKenzie McCoy
Born February 9, 1920
Died July 15, 2000

This blog is dedicated to my mother, Ruth Catherine McKenzie McCoy. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 9, 1920, and she died there on July 15, 2000. Not only was Ruth a great mother, she was also a writer at heart. She kept diaries from 1933 to 1943, and it was those diaries that inspired me to write a series of books set in the midst of the Great Depression and named for popular songs of the time. The first of those books is titled The Talk of the Town. It's set in the fictional town of Blue Ridge, Missouri, in 1933, and it will be released in hardback in September 2011. The book is dedicated to my mother.

Except for a few clarifications as to who's who, the diary entries are unedited. However, I've taken the liberty of adding family photos, events of historical note and some "old-time" recipes I've collected over the years and will include them following the diary entries. Those additions appear at the end of the diary entries and are marked with an *. It's my hope that you, the readers, will enjoy getting to know Ruth as much as I loved having her for my mother.