Author Archives: Jack

In 1939, Mrs. Annie Eller, a 44-year-old widow with an infant son, lived at Reddies River in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Her income was uncertain and mostly came from working for others, often inside the homes where she also boarded. In many cases, she paid for her board by providing labor, showing the informal and […]

March 1945. The fighting had just ended on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. The price of victory? Nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines and Navy personnel lost in just over a month. To honor them, a cemetery was carved into the volcanic ash, just steps from the battlefield. The 4th Marine Division Cemetery, established during the […]

Someone may need to hear this today. I know I did. My boys still think we were just camping. They never knew we were actually homeless. I remember waking up and watching them, all three curled under a thin blue blanket, breathing slow and easy like life was perfect. For a second I almost believed […]

The 1870s gave rise to two men of restless fire. John Henry “Doc” Holliday, once a Georgia dentist, was transformed by illness into a gambler and gunfighter of the frontier. Cards, whiskey, and pistols marked his days, each cough a reminder that death rode close. Across Missouri, John Newman Edwards forged his legend in a […]