Reading in my DNA

Grandma Ruby homesteaded in Oklahoma long before the libraries were built. An avid reader, she waited eagerly for the arrival of her Women's Home Companion every month, carefully rationing it into thirty parts so there would be something to read every day. Raising six children in Ft. Cobb, Oklahoma at the height of the Depression, she wanted better for her children than she'd had herself, so she and Grandad moved to Chickasha. He opened a barber shop; she sold eggs and irises; and their three daughters attended Oklahoma College for Women. They must have all hung out at this library.

It's for Grandma Ruby and our other foremothers I offer up this story of the women who built the Carnegie libraries on the Plains.