Jessie is Her Name: a Virginia Family's Oral History 1912-1949

Jessie is Her Name is the oral history of three generations of an Irish Shenandoah Valley of Virginia family. It tracks the life of Jessie Brown from her early childhood on an Estaline Valley farm to her becoming the beloved foster child of a wealthy Staunton Virginia couple. Her early training as an upper class young lady is shown in counterpoint to her fiery Irish temper as she encounters the morès and mannerisms of an established Victorian culture. It is told from the viewpoint of her youngest child, Donnie, who heard her many stories as he grew up and filed away this oral family history until she passed away in 1997. Although written as a work of fiction, it incorporates many real events in the Brown family history. It also tells the story of Donnie's beloved grandmother and the four summers he spent with her in 1946-1949. It shows how this poor Irish boy would develop his values, be schooled in the importance of family, and finally, find a way to incorporate these lessons into his own life as an adult.