It took me more than 40 years, but when I walked into the newspaper office of the old Fayette Sun back in 1982, I knew I had found my place in the world.

This was a second career for me. I was a schoolteacher for several years in the 1960s and 1970s before I decided it just wasn't for me.

I am a native of Atlanta. "Gone with the Wind" and I premiered the same year in the same town. I grew up in East Point, was graduated from Russell High in 1957, obtained my B.S. degree in education from North Georgia College in 1961, and married my college sweetheart, David "Butch" Kilgore the same year.

Our daughter, Davida, has given us five wonderful grandchildren. She is a 1983 Fayette County High School graduate.

I had always wanted to write and had taken creative writing in graduate English courses at Samford University in Birmingham. Landing a job on a newspaper was the answer to a dream... even at the ripe old age of 42. Starting at the bottom, I have done almost everything at a newspaper from receptionist to managing editor except operate the press. And, nearly 20 years later, I'm still here... with many of the same people... semi-retired, but still writing.

My hobbies? Well, I enjoy playing the piano and organ, but just for fun and family sing-alongs. For a while, I served as "interim" organist for my church (Cokes Chapel United Methodist in Sharpsburg) and really enjoyed learning to read music and play the old hymns. I love "fixer-upper" projects at home and have come to work more than once with paint splatters in my hair. In my younger years, I raised, trained and showed German Shepherd dogs, but age and health forced me to give that hobby up. I still have two old, retired show dogs who are my constant companions. Now I'm doing something a little more fitting for a senior citizen. I am totally consumed by a new hobby genealogy. We have just recently begun running a column on genealogy and I am proud and happy to put my name at the top of it.

I have been with The Citizen almost from its inception, first as a graphic artist and now as religion editor, and I look forward to many more years, God willing. As Cal has said to me several times, they will probably have to take me out on a stretcher. What a way to go!