Willie describes the events of her growing up with various family members and being a firsthand eyewitness of segregation in the South during the 1950s, as she recalls. Living with her grandparents in Yazoo City, Mississippi, is the basis of the early times from five to twelve years of age.

After her grandfather died, it became a new experience for both her and her grandmother. They were uprooted from Mississippi by an aunt who moved them to Chicago, Robbins, Illinois. Being shifted from one family member to another was a struggle for survival until Willie was enrolled in Piney Woods Country Life School. Piney Woods had a motto of educating the head, heart, and hand. Each student learned two marketable skills by working half-day and academics half-day. Kudos goes to Piney Woods for her success in the work arena and a fifty-year marriage. She met her husband at Piney Woods. This is her life.