Creating Fiction from History: Week of 1/18/2023

As babies go, she certainly wasn't remarkable. Of course, every baby, no matter how ugly they are, is cute. Barley certainly wasn't an ugly baby, although one might have noted that they'd seen cuter (not to the mother, of course.)

Barbara Leigh Jones, Barley to those who knew and loved her, was born on the 19th of April, in the year of our Lord, 1899, to John and Margaret Jones of Isabella, a small town in Polk County, Tennessee.

At the time of her introduction to this world, though the economy had recovered from the ravages of war, Barley's parents were struggling as John, fighting for the Co...