King's Daughter's Kitchen

I am named for a strong woman comic strip character that ran for years in the Chicago Tribune. My mother, being her sassy single self in the sixties, chose the perfect first name. My middle name is after one of the nine of my thirteen siblings, who I have never met.

My last name, the one I treasure the most, is from the man who married my mother and adopted me and chose to love us both for who we are. Dad was an Army man. He taught me boundaries, humor, self respect, how to shoot a gun, change the oil, and change a flat tire, and how to share a block of neopolitan ice cream with a knife. His no-nonsense discipline in a wishy-washy world helped me to build character to face the tough challenges of life. For these and a million other lessons, I am forever thankful and proud to carry Dad’s last name.