Charley's Girl

About the Book

"Mary Ann Berry has given us a riveting story [that] transcends the everyday and reveals how one family has written its chapter in the fascinating story of America."

William R. Gray
Retired writer, editor and publishing executive after 33 years at the National Geographic Society
Author of Legacy of the West

Charley's Girl tells the tale of a scrappy farm girl in central Oregon fighting her only classmate in front of their one-room schoolhouse-to a feisty octogenarian snowshoeing in Durango, Colorado. Along the way, Mary Alma Christy Sablich also recalls her more than fifty years spent in Chicago and its suburbs as worried wife, nervous mother, and grateful grandma.

Charley's Girl offers a dual-perspective on the life that Mary Alma and her daughter (author Mary Ann Berry) share as Berry listens, records, and remembers, too. This country was built on the backs of regular folks like the Christy family who rose to the task with common sense, healthy humor, and simple dignity. It takes courage to live an ordinary life, and Charley's Girl provides one example that has worked for almost a century.

About the Author

Mary Ann Berry earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where she also worked as writer, editor, and adult literacy tutor trainer. She now lives in Durango, Colorado with her husband, Tom, and their dog, Dickens. Charley?s Girl lives close-by.