About

I have lived in Des Moines, Iowa, all my life. I attended East High School and Drake University. Growing up, I played the accordion and was a member of the Des Moines Accordion Symphony Orchestra. We had the opportunity to travel the world entertaining and performing in many cities like Innsbruck, Austria; Neuchatel, Switzerland; Florence, Italy; the New York World’s Fair; and even inside the Eiffel Tower in Paris! We were also part of the 1972 Opening Ceremony at the Olympics held in Munich. I have won several speaking contests while a member of the DSM Jaycees. Being in front of an audience has always come easy to me. I recently retired after working in the restaurant business for 25 years. My free time is spent playing golf and writing.

My inspiration for telling stories are my six grandchildren and my great-granddaughter Jaycee Lynn.  In the evening, with one or two of them sitting around me or on my lap, I would weave stories of adventure and excitement with a little bit of suspense or sadness mixed in. The idea was to create a picture in their minds of the events in the story. A moral to the story was always at the end. When I would look into their eyes, I could see they were listening intently and it made me so happy.

When I am telling stories, I honestly don’t have a story outline in mind. The words just seem to flow from my mouth. With the grandchildren around, sometimes we would get off track with conversation. Thank goodness for a voice recorder at hand. Writing comes easy for me and it has been a joy to have the kids around to share my stories with.