The town was growing and there wasn't room for anything new. Near the end of the time there, if we bought a book, we had to take a different one off of the shelf because of the weight on the floor.

Some of the women in town took a red wagon and went door to door collecting books. The first library was the upstairs of the old village hall building, and it was there for many years.

It was very crowded in the village hall. It was used very much. That's how we got a new library building.

Just looking around town in Parsons, people think we don't have a lot of young professional people, but we do. A lot of them, because of their jobs, are not in a position to get out and meet people. We want a way to bring them together.

I risk a grin at the thought. Because there's a part of me that likes that idea. Get out of town and never look back.

Growing around [great musicians], you just can't help it. I identified with it immediately. It was something that was so natural to me that when I started singing, it was almost like speaking.