Return to the Land

employed LeRoy. They lived in Detroit the remainder of their married lives and would occasionally return to visit her parents.

Originally DeHart School later converted to Shady Grove Methodist Church (Photo taken 1999)

Joan recalls visits to the country where she felt that she was suddenly stepping back in time. At her grandparent’s home there was still outdoor facilities an d no electricity. This, of course, was a real shock to her since her home in Detroit had all the modern conveniences. She slept in a feather bed upstairs where there were no lights. Joan was about the same age of Margie Lee Miller, her first cousin, who lived next door. Margie thoroughly educated Joan on how to walk in the fields where the cattle were and the proper etiquette on use of the outhouse. She experienced for the first time the sounds and smells of farm life in the beautiful mountain setting.

LeRoy Armstrong died on November 22, 1980. Marie is being cared for by her children. Rodney moved to Mesa, Arizona in 1993 taking his mother with him. At the writing of this book my Aunt Marie is still living at the age of 95 years old in a nursing home in Arizona reminiscing at times of her childhood days on Kimberling.

Marie and LeRoy Armstrong in their Detroit, Michigan home, 1978

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