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I’m so glad you’ve found this special place. Come on in and rest a while. A stranger is merely a friend you’ve not yet met. Let’s not be strangers any longer.

I’m pleased to present THE LATE SOONER.

In my mother’s spare bedroom, stuffed in a walnut antique cabinet, I discovered a brown speckled ledger with ragged edges. The yellowed pages crackled as I opened it. It was my great-grandfather’s diary. Sanford Deering commented in one-line-a-day entries on his life in the 1880’s and beyond. He, his wife and children made the trek from Missouri to be among the first families in the initial opening of the Unclaimed Lands in the Oklahoma Territory in 1889. His daughter, Nora, was my father’s mother.

The more I read, it became clear to me I had to tell his story after being buried for 120 years. Thus, The Late Sooner came into being.

I have traveled to Oklahoma and researched in the Logan County Genealogical Society’s archives for the accuracy of historical facts. The basic story line is true. Where Sanford left gaps, I filled in the blanks.

Through the societies’ assistance, I was able to locate a simple limestone rock which serves as my great-grandmother’s headstone in Rose Lawn Cemetery near Mulhall, OK.

Come with me now to the year 1887.

Congratulations Oklahoma on your 2007 Centennial!