Arletta Dawdy

Huachuca Woman Arletta Dawdy

Publisher Marketing: HUACHUCA WOMAN is a work of historical fiction set in Southeast Arizona from 1886 to 1961. A veranda rail breaks. Barn filth is turning to dust. A rattler's nest needs clearing. Peeling paint on the old house demands attention. At 75, Josephine Nichols hasn't been up to caring for the Lazy L Ranch. She's thinking of selling out when spring break 1952 brings the Nichols cousins to the ranch and its matriarch. Recording the treasured stories of border life as only Jo can tell them, they get more than they dreamt of, bargained for or knew. Jo's love of the land and family are keys to her life-story. She tells of lost loves; of fears and fights against abandonment; dangerous bouts of depression threaten her stability; and guilt walks with her through too many years. The stories are framed against borderlands events and characters: Pancho Villa, Geromino, Mexican Revolution and WW1. A pact develops between the threesome to insure that the ranch endures. Nine years later, as Jo is put to rest at Sentinel Rock, The Lazy L Historical Ranch is a vibrant learning center for the preservation of the history, cultures and legends of Cochise County, not the least of which is of the HUACHUCA WOMAN.