aunt Gracie, PICTURED WITH HER HUSBAND, Stephen, AND HER FATHER

The Inspiration for Gracie’s Babies

If you’ve been reading Tennessee Mountain Stories for long at all, you will know that the novels I write are inspired by local characters – and we’ve had some real characters to choose from!

Because these stories are fictional, I do change the names and don’t often say a whole lot about where the inspiration originates. However, the inspiration for Gracie Ingle in my latest book, Gracie’s Babies, is so widely known and loved that she can scarcely be anonymous.

I’ve written before about Aunt Gracie Todd and all of the lives she touched as a local midwife. Here was an article here about the records she left behind of some of the births she assisted.

As I talked to some people who knew her well, they could only praise her. In fact, one neighbor called her an “angel among women.” As I researched other mountain midwifes, I found similar sentiment. Either this was the nature of a woman who would rush to your bedside at any hour of the day or night, or maybe you’d naturally feel that affinity for someone who came to help you in one of your most vulnerable hours. Whichever the case, Aunt Gracie Todd was much loved and today, some sixty years after her death, her name is still often spoken and fondly remembered.

Aunt Gracie’s granddaughter, Kathleen Carroll, grew up in the house with her and she has been a real blessing to me as I sought to learn about this woman who would star in my story. Many little details from the story are true to Gracie’s life. She did make a habit of changing her dress before going into her house, lest she bring home unwanted pests from some of the sadder places she visited. However, there was never any mention that there were places she was not willing to go to help someone in need.

The property where I’ve set Gracie’s Babies was the home place of Ray Buck’s grandparents. So he spent a lot of time there through the years and certainly heard stories about it. He talked about the ladies of the family gathering at the spring to do their wash and that was such a neat thing I’ve included it in the story.

These real-life facts are so interesting to me that I know I could not imagine better scenes to include in my books. And I am more grateful than I can express to the people who answer my endless questions and share their memories of these precious people from the past with me.