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I was born August 8, 1937, in the northern part of Bollinger County, Missouri, near the Perry County boundary line, Post Office address Yount, Missouri. The two-room cabin where my birth took place was the home of my great-grandfather J. S. Harper. My grandmother, Sarah Jane Crites, delivered me, as the doctor could not make it in time for the birth. Weighing only two pounds, my grandmother wrapped me in linen and put me into a shoebox. Needing to keep me warm, she put the shoebox into the wood cookstove oven to substitute for an infant incubator. My mother carried me around on a pillow because I was so small, and people told her that I would not live. She told these same people that God has a special plan for me.

A lifelong educator, I began in the small German Lutheran community of Cole Camp, Missouri, where I was called to teach at Holy Cross Lutheran School, a one-room parochial school. I would make several stops along the way, with my educator career ending in 2000. I saw changes from the use of the inkwell to the smartboard!