My two favorite subjects in high school were English and history. In English class I especially loved writing the nonfiction essays we were frequently assigned. The best part of my history classes was…everything.
Although I didn’t pursue either subject when I attended the University of Pittsburgh—I majored instead in elementary education—I never lost interest in them. Keeping up with history was easy. I read as many history books as I could get my hands on. And as for writing essays, I scanned magazines and my local newspaper, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, for opportunities to submit personal essays. My first two letters of acceptance were for articles I had written about my profession, teaching.
Although I loved teaching and enjoyed watching my students grow, I discovered about three years into my career I couldn’t just pack away my pens and yellow legal tablets, my favorite way of writing. During winter, spring, and summer breaks, I worked on fiction short stories and continued to write and submit personal essays. Then one year I was put in charge of my school’s July 4th program, which we celebrated in June. I wrote my own play, and for the first time I was able to combine my love of history with my love of writing.
I continued to teach and write. Before I met and married my husband Ed, I wrote a series of health related articles for a Pittsburgh based magazine. I interviewed a number of doctors and other health professionals. During this time, I read an article about Tourette Syndrome, which strikes in childhood. People with Tourette’s suffer from multiple tics, both physical and verbal. I became actively involved and helped establish the first support group in the Pittsburgh area.
Shortly after I was married, my first book, Notable Women, was published. It featured biographies of famous women, living and deceased, and included follow-up educational activities.
After Ed and I married, I began a quest to discover as much of America’s past as I could. Ed and I traveled throughout the United States, exploring, exploring, exploring. We visited famous places like Abraham Lincoln’s house in Illinois and important Revolutionary War sites in Boston. We retraced the Civil War by walking through former battlefields. And we toured some not so famous places like Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes’ and James Garfield’s houses, both in Ohio. We even met a grandson, now an older man, of 19th century president, John Tyler, who lives in the house his grandfather owned.
I used some of the information I learned along the way in books and articles, especially in my two books on presidential campaigning— Presidential Races: The Battle for Power in the United States and Presidential Races: Campaigning for the White House. Visiting so many historical presidential houses allowed me to create pictures in my mind of the presidents as candidates. I stood on the front porch where candidate Warren Harding spoke to so many crowds, and I toured the house James Buchanan retreated to after the end of his disastrous presidency.
Although I’ve traveled near and far—as far away as Australia and New Zealand—I always enjoy coming back home to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I live here with my husband, Ed, and my stepdaughter, Heather. My favorite place in my house is my small “antique room.” Over the years I’ve collected radios, record players, and records—one is over 100 years old—from the early 1900s – 1930s. Visitors to my house love to wind the cranks to get those machines started. They tap their feet and hum along to the music from America’s past.