Lucky Girl: Growing up Italian-American in Appalachia: A Memoir

Lucky Girl brings a different story of childhood in Appalachia—a girl’s story! Spurred by discovery of her mother’s diaries and father’s love letters, Jane DiVita Woody offers a loving testimony to parents, family, community, and life in a small West Virginia coal town. Experience the world through the eyes of this second-generation Italian-American girl, over-protected and restricted by her Sicilian father, yet brimming with unstoppable ambition and dreams of leaving her provincial locale. Glimpse life in an earlier, simpler era for a large immigrant family (one daughter amidst six brothers). Go back in time with this personal and passionate memoir that captures a typical family that faced tragedy and hardships, made sacrifices, gave their children a stable life, and encouraged them toward achievement, good citizenship, and family loyalty. The author unravels the forces that forged her unique identity as a woman who gained four academic degrees and a professional career. Uncovering her full truth, she explores the costs and benefits of leaving home for independence and admits her flaws and failures. Her story reminds us of the accomplishments of many 1950s so-called ordinary girls before the age of feminism.