|


In 1928 Josie Lou Lydia
Walker was thirty-two years old. Everyone assumed she would
be a spinster. She had grown up poor in Oklahoma, worked her
way through college, and been ordained as a minister,
traveling from Oklahoma to Kentucky to Missouri setting up
religious education programs.
World War I Veteran B.B. Blakey, co-owner of a Tulsa,
Oklahoma, hardware store, was thirty-three and had broken
off an engagement with a local beauty. Having second
thoughts, he went to Enid, Oklahoma, to see her at the home
of friends - and one Josie Walker opened the door.
B.B. and Josie would write over seven hundred letters to
each other over the next year and a half as they fell deeply
in love. As Josie traveled through a more innocent America,
B.B.'s letters marked "Personal" and "Special Delivery"
found her in small towns and train stops. Now this wonderful
exchange of writing, so filled with the joy of discovering
each other, is collected here by B.B. and Jo's
granddaughter, award- winning photographer Keri Pickett.
Along with their commentary on love, marriage, and family,
she shows us a relationship most people only dream about -
and to which all of us aspire.
Grandma has said that in the history of their marriage there
was never a day that Grandpa didn't tell her that he loved
her. Grandpa would say, "There was a man who told his wife,
'If ever I don't love you I'll tell you.' But that is not
us. I think we should be using those three words every day.
I love you."
This book is currently out of print. However, limited edition copies will soon be available from this web site. For more information please contact Keri Pickett.
The images in my book
LOVE IN THE 90s ( Warner Books, 1995)
are registered with Swanstock/The Image Bank.
For licensing or usage please contact Swanstock at 520-622-7133

|