Out of the Black Patch: The Autobiography of Effie Marques Carmack, Folk Musician, Artist, and Writer (Life Writings of Frontier Women)

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Summary: A fascinating, engaging, candid, informative autobiography.
Review: Effie Marquess Carmack (1885-1973) grew up in the tobacco-growing region of southern Kentucky known as the Black Patch. She married at an early age and, because of economic necessity and religious commitments, moved with her husband to Utah, back to Kentucky, then to Arizona, and finally to California. Along the way she became committed to preserving the rural, southern folkways she had experienced as a child. She became a folk poet and self-taught artist. In the 1940s she began writing her autobiography. Effie's story is a charming memoir of her spirited childhood on a poor tobacco farm. She describes a wide variety of folk practices from healing and crafts to children's games. A convert to the Mormon Church, her account of southern Mormon missions contributes to the little-known record of the Mormon church's attempts to establish a presence in the South. Out Of The Black Patch is a fascinating, engaging, candid, informative autobiography.