Published: June 30, 2008 09:34 am            

The women behind ‘Hannah’

Laurel County woman's life inspired great-niece's first novel

Click here to see the June 28, 2008 Neighbors section in its entirety


By Samantha Swindler, Managing Editor

Life was far from easy for 17-year-old Leona Carpenter, but she faced it with pride and optimism, and she did from the confines of her wicker-back wheelchair.

Leona’s life was an inspiration to her family, and in particular, her great-niece Margie Smith, whose first novel, “Hannah from Loam Hill,” is based on Leona’s story.

Smith, who was born in Laurel County but now lives in South Carolina, spent six months researching her great-aunt Leona for the character of Hannah, and spent a year writing the book.

“The idea just came from the admiration that I had for her, because ever since I knew her she was in a wheelchair, and she was so courageous, she just seemed like a happy person all the time,” Smith said. “She was very self-sufficient, very independent.”

Leona was born in the Horse Lick community of Jackson County in 1921.

At age 17, Leona developed septicemia —  a blood poisoning disease from an infected pimple on her face. She became very ill and laid in bed for weeks before the county’s only doctor came to see her.

“Her bowels and kidneys had locked up and her mind was coming and going,” Smith said. “He (the doctor) gave her a shot of antibiotics and she got better. He said, whatever you do, don’t get out in the heat and walk.”

After a few days passed, however, Leona felt well enough to walk to her sister’s house.

“On the way back, a storm came and she got caught in the storm, and she started running to get home, and the next day her legs went paralyzed,” Smith said.

Leona was taken to a hospital in Louisville, where she underwent six months of rehabilitation.

She came home in an L&N rail car in a wicker-back wheelchair.

The book follows “Hannah” during her time in the hospital, during World War II, when she wrote men who had gone off to war, and afterward.

Smith found love notes, cards and letters from her great-aunt, and parts of the book are based on what she found in Leona’s diary.

“She was a very beautiful woman, and there were some men who really liked her, but they were in wheelchairs and she wanted someone who would be able to take care of her and take her places,” Smith said.

Leona — and Hannah in the book — eventually does find love, marrying a man who also had a disability but was able to drive. Leona became an accomplished seamstress and a guitar player as well, and she always remained as independent as possible.

“The main thing I wanted to show in the book was she was able to overcome many obstacles in her life,” Smith said.

Leona moved to London in 1945 because her family felt it would be better for her to be close to a hospital if needed, and she lived there until her death in 1990.

“Hannah from Loam Hill” is very much a story about small town life, and about perseverance. But Smith did fictionalize some parts — though Leona never had children in real life, in the novel, Hannah comes to love an adopted child of sorts. The part was so believable, Smith said relatives asked her to invite the fictional “son” to the next family reunion.

Smith spent much of her childhood and school years in Ohio, but hasn’t forgotten her birthplace of London, Ky. The family holds annual reunions at Levi Jackson State Park, and Smith still returns to visit family in the area.

“Hannah from Loam Hill” is Smith’s first published novel, but likely not her last. She retired recently from her job as an office manager for an architectural firm to focus full-time on her writing.

“I retired early because I wanted to do this,” she said. “It was something I had to talk to my mother and to my great-uncle about, because I wanted to put in as much truth and facts as I could.

“I was so worried, I didn’t think the reaction would be very good,” Smith said of showing the novel to family. “Especially my great-uncle, he hadn’t read a novel in his life... My mother was very negative when I wrote it. She didn’t understand why I couldn’t call her ‘Leona,’ she didn’t understand why I couldn’t write a biography.”

But Smith said too many stories of Carpenter’s life were missing for a biography, and “I didn’t want it to be a book of genealogy.”

For legal reasons, because parts of the book are fictionalized, she couldn’t use Carpenter’s name, but in the end, Smith said her mother came to love the final product.

“There is a lot of work that went into it, but I’m glad that I did it,” Smith said.

Copies of “Hannah of Loam Hill” can be purchased via links found at www.marjoriersmith.com or at SonShine Christian Books in Corbin or Brookhaven in London. A copy can also be checked out from the Laurel County Public Library.

        

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