Idella Parker: From Reddick to Cross Creek

by Idella Parker, Bud Crussell, Liz Crussell

"A warmhearted and insightful tribute to the author of Cross Creek and The Yearling , and it’s the story of Parker herself, a tough-minded Floridian devoted to her family. A charming book."-- ALA Booklist Idella Parker’s recollections of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings are as intimate and frank as their ten years together. This long-awaited memoir, by the black woman who was cook, housekeeper, and comfort to the famous author from 1940 to 1950, tells two stories--one of their spirited friendship, the other of race relations in rural Florida in the days before integration.

 By turns kind and generous, moody and depressed, the Pulitzer Prize winning author emerges as a woman of contrasts--someone with "few friends and many visitors . . . who seldom smiled." Idella’s own life is part of this memoir, too, as she describes her courtship and marriage, her family lineage back to Nat Turner, and what it was life to grow up in a segregated society.

Genres: Memoir

232 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, insightful and honest portrayal of a woman living in a time where women of color had limited higher income prospects.
In Ms. Parker’s case, she outmaneuvered her racist and misogynist Florida neighbors by surviving to the age of 101, owning her own home, and excelling in different career fields as a teacher, hairdresser, private chef and public speaker. Her famous employer, Marjorie Rawlings, might have underestimated her mental strength but not her talents. In the end, she may have not been a Pulitzer Prize winner like her but she was one remarkable lady. I loved her book!

[Tony Petry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book for my research and I really learned a lot about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her life as well as about Reddick and Cross Creek

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging and forthright. I could not put this book down until every page had been read; every thought and feeling shared.I wish to know more about the Idella Parkers of Florida and other states. The words of wisdom and experience that she imparts in this book as well as Idella,The Perfect Maid, resonates in my soul. How I wish that I could have known her; talked to her, and learned just a smidgen of what her life's journey had shown and taught her.

[Marsha]

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' "Perfect maid." --