The Virginians: From Big Stone Gap to the capitol, we remember Senator John Warner, Carolyn Bloomer, Dr. Henry David Patterson, Ginny Patterson, Ben Allen, Midge Hall, Paula Sue Gillespie Isaac, David Isaac Jr., Morris Burchette, Johnny Cubine, Butch Lyke, and N. Brent Kennedy. The Miss Americas: Phyllis George and Leanza Cornett. They were beauties inside and out, and loving mothers. Glenmary priest/pastor/writer/rabble rouser: Father John Rausch was my spiritual counselor since I was a girl. I was blessed to know him.
Beloved actors/artists/writers/designers (and not just by me): James Hampton, Leila Meacham, Ed Stern, Mary Pat Gleason, Walter Hicklin, Jay Sandrich, Lynn Cohen, Robert Hogan, Alice Spivak, Rebecca Luker, Monty and Marilyn Hall, Dorothea Benton Frank, and Willie Garson. Angels: Melissa Smith’s son and Susan Sanders’s grandson; Logan Smith, Shannon DeHart, Patricia Lynn McMahon Vogelsang, Aunt Pauline “Polly” Harold, and James Natel Gomes de Oliveira Filho.
The New Yorkers: Bunny Grossinger, the great Charlie Weiner (Lynn’s husband, generous and kind), Sonny Grosso (half of The French Connection and full stop Italian American), Dorothy Tota of Long Island and Cartier’s, and Dr. Emil Pascarelli (Dee’s husband and as fine a man as ever lived).
The Fathers, good and kind men: Victor Peccioli, Dr. Vincent DeFranco, Marvin Gilliam, Vincent Festa, Joseph V. Trigiani, Jordan Barnette, Bruce Kerner, Jack Carrao, Alfred Shelton, Dennis Richard Myers, Joseph B. Rienzi, Eddie Mugavero, Gregory Piontek, Robert E. Isaac, Sr., Joe Toney, Ronnie Coughlin, L. C. Coughlin, Steven Goffredo, Jack Hurd, and Bernard Passarelli.
We will hold these beautiful mothers in our hearts forever: Doris Emmerson, Betty Joyce Ball, Patti Webb Cornett, Marie Castellano, Barbara Ann Festa, Nellie Millet Williams, Esther D. Wing, Jean Hendrick, Evadean Church, Carlotta Browder, Janet Salerno Bellanca, Nancy Cline Toney, Eleanor “Fitz” King, Ardeth Fissé, Dolores “Dee” Losapio, Marie Trigiani, Rita Joan Holwager, Susan Cooperman Tannenbaum, Theresa Joan Winiecki, Portia McClenny, Marie Salerno, Cheryl Scarelli, Rosalyn Mugavero, Nina Coughlin, Martha Bolling Wren Ford, Billie Louise Peters Gabriele, Norma A. Siemen, Jean DeVault Hendrich, Rosalia Helen LaValley Pentecost, and Marie Casavecchia.
The loss of Shirley Cavallo, visionary/chef/designer and owner of La Locanda Del Cavallo in Easton, Pennsylvania, is enormous. I learned a great deal from her sumptuous and gorgeous largesse at the table, in the garden, and in her home. Her beloved son Brondo, my honorary brother, carries on her spectacular work.
James Huber Varner drove the Wise County Bookmobile. When I was a girl and he stopped in Big Stone Gap, it was always an event. He was never without a smile or a recommendation for this young reader. I adored him.
The wonderful educators changed the world and live on in the keen intellects of the students they taught: Dorothy Ruggiero, Dr. George Vaughn, Peggy Vaughn, Connie Clark, and Anthony Baratta will be missed.
The Origin Project serves over 2,500 students in grades 1 through 12 in my home state, Virginia. The program’s Appalachian roots have grown a garden of talented young, published writers. The in-school writing program would not exist without executive director and co-founder Nancy Bolmeier Fisher’s vision and pluck. Our deepest gratitude to Ian Fisher and Ryan Fisher. Linda Woodward keeps the wheels on the bus, and Rhonda Carper rotates the tires when we need it most.
Thank you to The House of Love team at Viking, who brought joy during the process of writing this novel, while my first children’s book was illustrated by the incomparable Amy June Bates. Thank you to my brilliant editor Tamar Brazis and her team: Olivia Russo, Ken Wright, Denise Cronin, Lucia Baez, Jed Bennett, Leah Schiano, Alex Garber, Lauren Festa, Carmela Iaria, Summer Ogata, and Shanta Newlin.
Thank you, Ernestine Roller and Billie Jean Scott, the librarians who welcomed me into their school libraries in Big Stone Gap with open hearts. I owe a great a debt to them.
My evermore thanks to: Jean and Jake Morrissey (the only two friends in the world who would actually pick up the phone at 2 a.m.), Tony Krantz and Kristin Dornig, George Dvorsky, Bruce Feiler, Mary Ellen Fedeli, Ron Block, Dorothy Isaac, Dianne and Andy Lerner, Spencer Salley, Jayne Muir, Nigel Stoneman and Charles Fotheringham, Kim Isaac DeHart, Liza (Brian) and Jamie (Mark) Persky, Ali Feldon, Alan and Robin Zweibel, Lou and Berta Pitt, Doris Gluck, Tom Dyja, Wiley Hausam, Dagmara Domincyzk and Patrick Wilson, Philip Grenz, Christina and Willie Geist, Joyce Sharkey, Jody and Bill Geist, Jackie and Paul Wilson, Sister Robbie Pentecost, Karen Johnson, Roland LeBreton, Steven Williams and Michael Stillman, Heather and Peter Rooney, Aaron Hill and Susan Fales-Hill, Mary K and John Wilson, Jim and Kate Benton Doughan, Joanna Patton, Polly Flanigan, Michael Morrison, Angelina Fiordellisi and Matt Williams, Michael La Hart and F. Todd Johnson, Richard and Dana Kirshenbaum, Karen and Gary Hall, Michael and Rosemarie Filingo, Nancy and Jimmie Kilgore, and Kenny Sarfin.
I am honored to be published so elegantly in the country of my roots. Thank you to the team at Tre60 in Milan: Stefano Res, Cristina Prasso, Chiara Ferrari, Valentina Russo, Barbara Trianni, and Giulia Tonelli.