I was born in Baltimore to a pair of Irish immigrants, the third of three daughters. We moved to Towson shortly after my birth and then to Tacoma Park until settling in Frederick in 1957. That doesn’t seem so long ago to me but it was a time when there were working farms on both Rosemont Avenue and Seventh Street and the bypass and Frederick Shopping Center were yet to be constructed.

I attended St. John’s Grade School and graduated from Prospect Hall in 1962. After earning my two year degree at Frederick Community College, and meeting my husband Bill, I went on to Towson University where I majored in English.

Except for the few years spent in England and in Little Rock, Ark., while my husband was on duty in the U.S. Air Force, I have loved calling Frederick my home.

Raising our three girls was always my full-time career, but I had many “very odd” jobs over those years as well, and they provided not only extra income but some much needed comic relief, especially during those stressful teenage years.