"My dad worked in a gold mine in Lead, South Dakota, state mining company, and I was the youngest of six children. I had three brothers who were older and then twin sisters, and I'm the last one, I was born in 1920. And [my parents] decided to pick up and move the entire family in 1927 and [we] came to Michigan. They moved because it was a company town and the only place my brothers would be able to find work would be in the gold mines, and of course mining is not the safest occupation. So I've often thought about their courage in starting totally over."
Driving
"[My mother] believed that girls should know how to drive, and my dad didn't think they had any need to know how to drive. So Mom, unbeknownst to him, took us girls out and taught us to drive. And my dad, he was a good father, but he was a lousy driver and I hated to ride with him. And my mother, on the other hand, was a good driver. But that was just a different age."
Books and Reading
"I remember my dad and mother used to play cards, they belonged to a card club. I can remember I'd walk to the library usually every Saturday, that was about a mile and a half, and I'd pick up a batch of books. Put me down with a book, I'd fix some popcorn, so while they were playing cards I had my [books and popcorn] and I was just fine. I can remember [my dad] used to read to me, there was this story of the red hen and how she was saved from fox's den, every night I'd want that read to me and he'd read it."
Copyright 2003 Sarah Leonard
Early Life
University of Michigan
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