Letters to Lori, masterfully crafted by Barbara League, tells the life story of Opal Corn Myers through a series of interviews Opal gave during the last years of her life. Eager to leave a written legacy of East Tennessee mountain life for her grandchildren, especially, her granddaughter, Lori, Opal recollected decades of memories and asked Barbara to sort and compile them.
Opal, the third of six children, was born in 1911 near Hall Top Mountain in Cocke County, Tennessee, to Arthur and Flora Corn. Opal’s parents, who, at times, didn’t have two pennies to rub together, nonetheless instilled in their children an abiding foundation of love, compassion, and respect for hard work.
A few years after Opal’s birth, her parents moved to within walking distance of Ebenezer School, operated as a mission of the Presbyterian Church, South, so their children could receive the best quality education available at that time and place.
In the spring of 1927, after tragedy struck, Opal made a bargain with God. “If You will make it possible for me to get a scholarship and go off to school, I promise that I will come back here and be a mission worker and take care of my people.”
Leaving Cocke County to further her education in Kentucky, there Opal met a persistent suitor promising her an easy life in a big city. During the Depression, she confronted a cash-strapped school district, resistant to change. Her most difficult challenge was yet to come: welcoming home a wounded warrior, forever scarred by World War Two.
Opal met these challenges head-on, fueled by her faith in God, by trust in His providence, and resolve steeled by memories of her beloved teacher, Frances Marston.
When, in the late 1950s, a letter arrived from a nationally revered Christian author, seeking to tap Opal’s vast knowledge of rural Appalachia’s people and their customs for an upcoming book, Opal welcomed her into the old Ebenezer Mission house where she was educated, where she and her family then lived.
A labor of love by author Barbara League, Letters to Lori will inspire its readers to reflect upon their own callings to serve, and to sacrifice for those ideals and goals they hold most dear.
Note: Before its publication I was privileged to proofread “Letters to Lori” and to provide a timeline for its appendix, furnishing important dates in Ebenezer Mission’s history. These were gleaned through research I am conducting in order to write a comprehensive history of Ebenezer Mission.
Marilyn Mitchem
Amazon Review
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