Home on Clear Creek: The Life of Barbara Jean Brady Thompson

"Mabel, you've got a little girl, but I think she is dead." The first words greeting the arrival of baby Barbara Jean Brady could hardly have proved more wrong. What followed were eight decades of family love and lore in a devout Catholic family.

Inspired by her mother's and grandmother's family stories, Joanna Thompson Buckman recalls this bygone era in Home on Clear Creek: The Life of Barbara Jean Brady Thompson, sharing warm reminiscences of what her mother's life was like growing up on a farm in central Kentucky.

From hours playing with siblings and cousins down on Clear Creek to crowding around the big Zenith radio awaiting news of "our boys" in the South Pacific, this intimate memoir recalls a time when rural families were close-knit and self-sufficient — because they had to be.

Remember cracker barrels at the general store? Sears & Roebuck catalogs at Christmastime? Then you will enjoy the tales and sayings of the large, extended Brady and Buckman clans, complete with "Ma Boo's" dessert recipes.

About the Author

Mother and grandmother Joanna Thompson Buckman preserves heartwarming memories of her small-town Kentucky family for future generations, in the voice of her beloved mother, "Bobbie Jean" Brady Thompson.