Loretta Woodruff Rodgers currently resides in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, where she spends her days gardening, reading, writing, taking long walks, and getting closer to God.
She was born during the segregated late 1940s and was nurtured by her village to become an outstanding teacher of reading and writing for both children and adults. Consider this remarkable as her third-grade teacher had informed her mother that Loretta was dyslexic. When her mother asked what was to be done, the teacher said, ‘Don’t worry, she’ll figure it out!” And she did.
Her career of guiding students to experience the joys of reading and writing began as a teacher with Chicago Public Schools and culminated as a Professor with the Dallas Community Colleges in Dallas, Texas. She was recognized at Eastfield College for her contributions to literacy and visual arts scholarship after coauthoring a textbook, “College Reading Series “, with John Garcia.
Her second book, ‘Nothin’ Better,’ a parenting memoir of prose and poetry, extolled the idea that there were no ordinary moments as she and her husband, Wesley, raised their three sons, Tracey, Jonathan, and David in Dallas, Texas.
‘Racing Popscicle Sticks’ is a collection of rich, untold short stories and poems of people in Ensley Alabama during the Jim Crow Era. Circumstances should have caused them to shrivel up and disappear. Instead, their nature was to thrive.
LORETTA’S