Souvenirs I Still Cherish --- Helen Stanberry’s Story: Chapter 1

Souvenirs I Still CherishHelen Stanberry’s StoryChapter 1Spoiled Rich GirlI was a rich, white girl who had never chosen to marry. Many of my fellow Southern women would have called me a spinster. I was Miss Hellen Elizabeth Stanberry when I was born and that is how I died. But lonely, I was not. I lived a satisfying (and sexually fulfilling) life of my own choosing. And I did it while teaching school in Ashe County, North Carolina, a forlorn place of high poverty, and limited vistas in Southern Appalachia.I was a rich girl, the oldest daughter of the lumber baron, S. O. Stanberry. He had sawmills all over western North Carolina, was a partner in the region’s principal railroad, and owned our town’s only bank. He drove either a flashy Packard and or a dependable Cadillac. Our neighbors (and employees) drove old rusted Model T trucks. We had a large, three-story white frame house with central heating and three large bathrooms. Our neighbors (and employees) lived in shanties with potbelly stoves and outhouses built right over their creeks.My father was a high order Mason, so he was known, and welcomed everywhere. My father was also a Presbyterian Elder, a religious order three steps above the all-too-prevalent Baptists. Because everyone knew my father, everyone knew me. But because they knew my father, they never told him about what I did.No one ever told him that I smoked cigarettes, drank cocktails, and climbed into the hayloft with many very virile men.re-broadcast by special request