Born May 9, 1951, as the 10th of 12 children in Montgomery, I attended Janie Lou Rives Elementary, Baldwin Junior High, then on to Lanier. After graduation in 1969, I worked for the Montgomery Board of Realtors as the Executive Secretarial Assistant. In 1970, I moved to Provo, Utah, to be near friends and worked at a bank. Moving back to Montgomery for the summer, I took a position as a Clerk-Stenographer with the Alabama Department of Safety Education and Public Relations. I was the only secretary for 13 District Troopers and three administrative officers. I co-edited and published the state-wide departmental magazine. I took a stenographer stint in Governor George Wallace's office at the State Capitol during that time. I stayed with the Troopers four years. In 1974, I married a military man and began having my family, moving to many different assignments over the next few decades (New Jersey, Washington State, Arizona, Texas). With my skills in typing and shorthand, I never really gave college a serious thought, as I was highly employable. As it turned out, after divorce and moving back to Provo, Utah, and being a single parent beginning in 1996, I had an opportunity to try my hand at college. In May of 2009, I graduated from Utah Valley University with a BA in English, Literature, and Creative Writing. I began substitute teaching at local elementary and junior high schools and did well at that. Within a couple of months after graduating from college, my first boyfriend, Jimmy Byrd, who I knew in 1966-68, and I re-connected via Facebook. After communicating via phone and e-mail for a while, we were married in April, 2011, 41 years after he first asked me to! We are very happy, at LONG last, living back in Orem, Utah, near my kids and grandkids, where Jimmy hopes to retire very soon. Update: Jimmy has just retired (2021) and we have our home now in Provo, Utah, near my children. My brother, Warren, also a 1969 graduate of Lanier, was buried today in Shorter, Alabama.

I was the fastest typist at Lanier at 116 wpm, so I didn't have to take the second year of typing as a result. Mr. Gauntt thought I needed to deal with Math more, but I still couldn't quite grasp the concepts. (I did finally pass Algebra in college though!). I was also the fastest in shorthand at 147 wpm, which helped me land some pretty high-level jobs over the years. (Now, shorthand is virtually obsolete and with computers, accuracy is not as demanding with Spellcheck, etc.) My best friends in high school were Sherri Vann (Sellers) and Steve Orange, a junior, who took me to the senior dance featuring Billy Joe Royal. We got into so much trouble in study hall gabbing away. I don't think I would have survived school without his friendship. I loved school, though, and have many happy memories of going to Lanier. The many successful football games were among many of those memories. Some of my favorite teachers were JoAnn Lucci, Col. Loy Singleton, Nancy Jacobs, Lucy Price, Ted Jackson, Ms. Graydon and others.