The Secret-Keepers’ Stories by Joyce Lewis-Andrews

When hardship commingled dangerously close to pride, the grit of barely getting by never washed away, and Frugality, the red-headed step-sister of fun, tagged along, eleven members of the Williams family spun those losses into fables, patched downheartedness with hope, and stirred a heaping “reason for everything” into what they could. A reverence and knack for storytelling ran deeply through this household’s blood… but so did a curse, a streak of bullheadedness, and a few good reasons for secret-keeping, too.

This family biography and anthology of tales chronicle the confluence of gumption, character, loyalty, and talent that pulled one working-class family and twentieth-century progress forward. It is written as a tribute to the actual story makers — Ethel, Annie, Eunice, Clara, Margaret, Joe, Minnie, Evelyn, Betty, Sam, and Mabel — and the happily-ever-afters that folk like them were honor-bound to leave behind.