During Leora Goff’s early decades, she gathered the tenacity, optimism and hope she would need throughout her long life. When she married Clabe Wilson, they became forged into parents who would shepherd their own family through two more great eras of world and local history–the Great Depression and WWII.

“Dive into these pages and experience adventures akin to Little House on the Prairie meets Our Town.” –John Busbee, Founder of The Culture Buzz

The foreword was written by Lee Habeeb, founder and host of Our American Stories, a talk radio executive, and Newsweek essayist.

The poem “Morrisburg Cemetery” was written by Guthrie Center native, Nicholas Dowd.

About the Author

Joy Neal Kidney is an Iowa author who grew up on a farm, now living in a Des Moines suburb with her husband, Guy, an Air Force Veteran of the Vietnam War and a retired Air Traffic Controller. Their son and his wife live out-of-state with a small daughter named Kate.

With God’s help, Joy is aging gratefully. Living with fibromyalgia for two dozen years has given her plenty of home-bound days to write blog posts and books. Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots is her third book in the “Leora Stories” series. Her research from decades ago has helped tell her grandmother’s stories.

Joy was presented with the 2021 Great American Storyteller Award “Honoring the Woman Who Most Beautifully Tells the Story of America to Americans,” by Our American Stories and WHO NewsRadio 1040.