WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Joy Neal Kidney of West Des Moines this week released the third in her “Leora’s Stories” book series, entitled “Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots.”
The publication follows her success with the 2019 title, “Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II,” succeeded in 2021 with “Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.”
Rod Stanley, noted Dallas County historian and board member of the Dexter Museum and the Guthrie County Historical Village and Museum, praised Neal Kidney’s latest effort in “Leora’s Early Years”:
The eldest of 10 children, Leora Goff grew up mostly on farms in Guthrie County, but she was not allowed to attend high school. Her folks, both with Iowa pioneer ancestry, relied on her sturdy and cheerful help with everything from childcare to chickens, cooking and canning to washing and ironing, gardening to fieldwork. Leora developed the tenacity, optimism and hope she’d need to endure three brothers drafted for the Great War, the loss of family members and marriage to Clabe Wilson. Clabe’s alcoholic father had died, leaving his unstable mother with two small children. These undercurrents forged Clabe and Leora into the parents they’d need to become to successfully shepherd their family through two great eras of world and local history — the Great Depression and World War II.
Clabe and Leora Wilson moved to an acreage just south of Perry in the fall 1944, and there the received most of the terrible telegrams f their sons deaths. Clabe, Leora and Junior Wilson are buried at Violet Hill Cemetery in Perry beside a commemorative stone raised in honor of two more sons who lost their lives in combat. All five brothers are remembered on the Dallas County Freedom Rock at Minburn.
Joy Neal Kidney is a regular storyteller on “Our American Stories,” heard locally over WHO-Radio 1040 AM. Her website is https://joynealkidney.com. Autographed paperback copies of her books are available at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines (515-279-5400) and at the Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale. Paperback, hardback, and ebook may be purchased from Amazon, as well as the audiobook of “Leora’s Letters,” narrated by Paul Berge.
