“A Little History ” Lue Grey Shifflett was born October nineteenth nineteen thirty four in Virginia.

My mother died on September first nineteen seventy four. As long as I could remember my mother had me singing and also trying to play the fiddle, mind you not the violin of the sophisticated , but the fiddle. I was so young and never knew why all the to do about music which , yes I so adored as I sang and sang and did choir and church as well.

I knew then of several visits from cousin’s in Virginia but really never enough of the family to even care as I was so young then. Momma’s family always seem to be a secret. I never knew any of my grandparents or any family history. I did know that there was musical talents in all of us but not where it came from. I like so many children grew up poor and we were put with family members while my mother worked hard to raise us children without a husband or friends. The Shifflett’s were a wild bunch.

This I was told over and over but seemed to lean toward my Indian aunt or whom I had believed to be an aunt and have just found out was my cousin instead. See we never really know whom all our relatives are and many never keep that close contact as our families did not .

The Shifflett’s lived in Virginia and grew up poor but happy in music and all that happened in their past. The families seem to grow up with not less than a few dozen kids in each family. I grew up and led a rough life in Dayton , Ohio and was probably actually acting out so much like my family and never knew it. I got married and raised three children and did the house work thing and also worked and also learned life wasn’t so easy.

I went through troubled times with my children and when they were all gone I finally had time for my writing career which threw me into completing my education with putting myself through school and getting my G.E.D. and also I paid for three College courses on my own while living on as little as four hundred and forty four dollars only a month.