Thirty-Seven Cents and a Prayer

ISBN:  1-4241-8032-5

Ollie Grace Hale's mother, Carri, was disowned by her family for marrying the man she loved.  Ollie was born in Middlesboro, Kentucky on April Fools Day of 1896.  On the very day she was born, her father was killed in a coal mining accident.  Ollie's mother remarried and she and her new husband had ten more children.  Ollie was the eldest and the only step child among the children, so she spent most of her time helping to raise the other children.  She spent her early years in poverty.

By the age of fifteen, Ollie was sold into marriage to a coal miner in Thurber, Texas.  By sixteen, she had a daughter of her own.  When she was twenty her husband abandoned her and her daughter in Thurber.  Since Thurber was a company coal mining town and Ollie was not a miner, she was told she and her young daughter Mary Lee would have to leave Thurber.

Ollie wanted to keep her daughter with her and make a home for them both, but she only had 37 cents when they left Thurber.  Ollie had no education as she was not allowed to go to school.  She had no job skills. All she had ever done was farm chores, keep house, and raise children.

So, Ollie Grace took Mary Lee by the hand and walked down a lonely dirt road leading out of Thurber.  All she had was the 37 cents and a prayer.  But would that be enough?