The Folks in the Woods

The Folks in the Woods focuses on Mary Ann Ackerson, 1904-91, in an isolated French village located in southeast Missouri. When she was seven years old, her parents--Daly and Sarah Ackeson--died of typhoid fever on successive days in 1911. Because Missouri was not yet a state, there were no adoption procedures for Mary Ann and her two brothers and one sister. The author's maternal great-grandfather and great-grandmother, Zeno and Sarah Osia, took Mary Ann to live with them. She grew up with thei