ISBN: 0-88739-398-5
133 pp.
Size: 6 x 9
Pub Date: 12/2002
Paperback Original
Price: $15.95
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Mama and the Hills of Home
Essie Kathryn Scott Payne
Mama lived a life of prayer and song, in good times and in bad. Living on an isolated farm when her husband died, she sang and prayed her eight children through the Great Depression and on into adulthood. She strategized ways to encourage their commitments to moral conduct and service to the larger community.
In Mama and the Hills of Home, we follow the spiritual growth and social maturation of the youngest daughter, Essie Kathryn. The hills mark her for life as her mother instills in her a value system and a religious faith. That faith is tested as she grows up, goes to college, marries, and pursues the teaching profession. Participate in the challenges and share in the spiritual triumphs of Essie Kathryn Scott Payne as she shares her story and the power of loving one's heritage.
Review: "Mama and the Hills of Home is as soothing as an old spiritual sung by a grandmother when she does not know anyone is listening. Essie Payne reveals to the reader that despite the pain of poverty, the terror of racism, and the despair of loneliness, there can still be bright hope. Hallelujah!"
-Maya Angelou
"Kathryn Payne's engaging remembrance of her isolated family adds beautifully to the diversity of the African American experience. And more importantly perhaps, it tells a universal story of how a mother's love and spirituality triumphs over poverty and racism."
-Susan M. Kidd, Anchor/Reporter, WRC-TV
"This book embodies the values and character prevalent in the hearts of all Americans during the tumultuous 30s and 40s and provides a road map for the pivotal decisions of the future."
-John Caughlan
"Essie Kathryn Payne may be an exemplar of what newscaster Tom Brokaw calls 'America's Greatest Generation' yet she attributes her success to the generations that preceded her. She credits her extraordinary persistence when faced with formidable challenges to the wisdom, love, and support she received from her mother, her family, and a sense of life's rhythms gained from growing up in the hills of Ohio."
-Jean Mulhern Library Director Wilberforce University
The author prevails in this warm, satisfying autobiography of a family determined to succeed against the odds."
-George T. Johnson, Library Director (retired) Central State University, Wilberforce, OH
"Solace for the bruising hurts comes as the author gently eases us into the comfort of Mama's loving arms and leads us where the soothing brook and the 'celestial choir' work their mystic healing in 'this microcosm of God's universe.'"
-Charlotte Ames, M.D.
"Essie Payne strikes you as a woman at peace with herself and her life and she writes in the same vein. You will want to discover who you are too. Well-written?touching."
-Marilyn B. East, retired newspaper journalist
Bio: ESSIE KATHRYN SCOTT PAYNE was born and raised in Ohio. She received her B.A. in English from Wilberforce University, her M.A. in English from Ohio State University, and is Emerita Professor of English at Central State University.
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