I was raised in San Perlita Texas; a small town consisting of a grocery store and post office, a service station and a good and complete school system. San Perlita is located in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley in the lower tip of Texas, and borders Mexico. To the north of the valley lies the giant King Ranch and westward lies the Gulf of Mexico. During WW11, I worked in Corpus Christi, Texas at Rodd Field Naval Base. It was a heedy experience for someone who had never been off the farm. After the war, I worked for 23 years at The Victoria Advocate; a newspaper that covers a large part of South Texas. I was the Book Review Columnist and did a regular column for the paper, and sometimes a feature. I wrote small articles of interest for the paper and for other newspapers of the area. I have published seven books; two biographies and five mystery novels.
During the war I married an Air Force officer and have been blessed with four children.
My first book was DELPHIA; ACROSS THE FRONTIER TO SOUTH TEXAS. This was the story of my Grandmother. When I was young and still on the farm, I began to listen to my grandmother talk about her childhood on the prairies of Kansas and subsequently, her arranged marriage. I was fascinated and avidly followed her story of the couple’s journey by covered wagon to Oklahoma and then to South Texas where they established a farm. The one we were sitting on. From that farm, life took me all over the world My husband was a Construction Engineer and we lived two years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I began grandmother’s story. Our next move took us back to the states to Victoria Texas where I got a job writing a book review column for the Victoria Advocate, a prominent newspaper in South Texas….and finished grandmother’s story. Grandmother’s name was Delphia and another title would never have been sufficient for this book. DELPHIA: ACROSS THE FRONTIER TO SOUTH TEXAS was published by Eakin Press and has been a success. It’s on “FRONTIER WOMEN OF AMERICA, AMAZON.COM, BARNES AND NOBLE, BOOKSAMILLION AND MANY OTHERS:
Other books by Lois Scott, include;
SHADOW OF THE SAVAGE: A young nurse on the frontier. A true story of northwest, set in the framework of a novel. In the footprints of Lewis and Clark comes the personal story of Rachel, a nurse who goes with her husband---a doctor---on house calls to lonely homesteader cabins, lumber camps and---sometimes Indian villages, where they walked beside danger every day. At night, the howl of the wolf pack floats out over the great forests and the deep silence seemed filled with ominous threat. To complicate matters, Rachel is being stalked by a handsome young half breed Indian man, who lives by no laws nor morals. and is as wild and untamed as the great mountains around him. He takes what he wants without guilt or fear---and he wants Rachel.
LEADER OF THE PACK; This is a poem, A sort of ‘ode’ to the passage of eons of time and the evolution of the species. It was written to place on the inside flap---or first page---of the above Title. Shadow of the Savage.
LEADER OF THE PACK
A clarion call on a winters night
The hunting cry of the pack
An answer from a distant peak
In the snow, a fresh moose track
Stark shadows, fingers of death
Swiftly, silently, pale eyes aglow
A story as old as life itself
Written in the bloody snow
A full moon filters down from above
Cold, impassive and beneign
To the ongoing cycle of life and death
That flows through the mists of time
From a warm fireside, an old dog heard
The story borne on the wind
And something deep in his subconscious stirred
A fragment of memory; a knowledge of kin
Some long forgotten urge to answer the call
Known in eons past
When, with nose pointed high and full throated cry
He’d ran at the head of the pack
Young and l***y, fierce and free
A wild thing without mercy in his quest
When the young earth cooled, and brute force ruled
And a fire burned deep in his breast
But a warning whisper went up his spine
As overhead the wild goose fanned
He’d be only prey for his pack mates now
Grown soft in the world of man
This poem describes the great Northwest Territories, and is meant to supplement the story, Shadow of the Savage.
THE AWAKENING: Jenny and Deidra were sisters but as different as night and day. Their lives flowed down very different paths. Jenny finally finds her niche in New York City and her bond with Deidra is severed. It’s a vey lonely time for Jenny. She has heard from correspondence back home that Deidra has taken her boy friend, and she feels betrayed.
On Christmas Eve morning she sits alone before the fire when she sees a miracle in the form of Deidra getting out of a taxi before her house. Jenny is momentarily shocked. Even in her dreams, she is unprepared for the message Deidra has brought.
In the night---the silent night---the holy night---a spirit whispers, a church bell rings and somewhere far away and a lonely freight train blows. Will Jenny accept what Deidea is offering or is it too late.
A BLOOD RED ROSE FOR SOPHIA; She was beautiful and virginal, and seemingly untouchable. On prom night, her bright blonde hair seemed to form a halo around her head, as she danced and laughed with her classmates. But, just beyond the gaiety and lights, a dark figure watched her and seethed with a jealous rage. His twisted mind was outragedthat she would laugh and enjoy others. He had stalked her and mentally claimed her. He considered her above and beyond common, low-lives and had built a shrine to her in his bedroom.
They found her next morning lying on a bleacher, laid out perfectly, her hair arranged perfectly framing her face and a deep red rose on her blood stained breast…. A deep dangerous picture is not lost on the investigating officers. A sick picture…..
DELPHIA; ACROSS THE FRONTIER TO SOUTH TEXAS; This is a biography. The story of my grandmother. Her new husband had been chosen by her mother, who was dying of turburclosis and would be leaving Delphia alone in the wilderness. Someone would need to take care of her frail daughter. She had deliberated long hours over this and had chosen a young German man, John Claus Reoh, to trust her daughter to. John had come in with the railroad crew when the rails had reached their little town of Salina, Kansas. He seemed to be a stable, hard working man and the railroad paid good.
Delphia packed her belongings and prepared to follow the rails in a covered wagon as John worked with the crew laying the rails for the web of railroads crossing our country. They buried her mother on the second night out. Delphia cried as they left the small grave alone on the vast--- seemingly endless---prairie, lonely and desolate, where coyotes howl and night winds wail.
They followed the rails into Oklahoma, where they established a farm, Then Texas opened up government lands for sale. This land was rich, cheap and going fast, so John bought a hundred and eighty acres, sight unseen, and moved his family to South Texas. His family was mostly grown now, so he left his farm in Oklahoma in the hands of his oldest son, Bill, and started the new farm from scratch. There was hardships and pestilences. The pioneer Texas woman lived with the threat of disease,death, harsh blue northers, and big c**k roaches. This book leaves nothing out and delves into the heart of the lonely pioneer woman. She endured primitive childbirth, red-ants and rattlesnakes, but today there are farms in both Oklahoma and Texas with the Reoh imprint.
NUGGETS FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION: We’ve seen a lot of pictures taken during tne Great Depression, sad pictures and pictures that brought us to tears, but there was also a thin crust of of humor. Not much, to be sure, but what there was, was robust and gutsy. No m how honest and upstanding a man may be, he will raid his neighbors chicken roost if his family is hungry.
I was raised on a farm just outside the small town of San Perlita Texas and I saw this thin film of humor first hand. A farmer fires off a shotgun volley of rock salt to protrct his watermelon patch and the thieves fire back. And the fight is on. Rock salt is not fatal, but it sure can be painful. It usually had to be picked out of the hide with tweezers.
RESSURECTION MOUNTAIN: Jackie McKenzie was a fugitive. She had just stolen a hundred thousand dollars from a large Savings and Loan in Farmington, New Mexico and is now entering Ouray Colorodo. Her little Volkeswagen Bug won’t go vey fast and she cringes at every car backfire or sight of a Police Patrol Cruiser….
Jackie finally finds refuge and shelter in a summer home, that is closed for the winter, nestled in the foliage and colorful foliage on Resurrection Mountain. Strange things happen on Resurrection Mountain, including a place where time seems to flow backward and one is able to go back in time. By this time, handsome Chief of Police Curtis Wellstone of Ouray has discovered Jackie, and has her in custody. But even the sheriff is intrigued by the mystory of Resurrecton Mountain. They have been joined by a history professor from the University of Colorado. This professor has studied the history of the area and researched an old legends about the place---especially an Indian girl named Red Wing, who just kept appearing in his findings. It seems he has become obsessed with this Indian girl and wants to go back in time to find her. These three decide to go through the time zone of Ouray to a time two hundred years in the past. It’s a great adventure which clarifies some of the old legends and shines the light on an old unsolved murder case. In hindsight the murder is solved and---v
THE HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHTS: VOICES IN THE WIND. Renee Rousseau goes back to the house where she was born.
