Mountain Boy
A True Story of Redemption
by Kathleen Kilgore

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“Walter Thomas Kilgore was a mountain child, born and raised in Appalachia by a family of coal miners. His early years were spent running barefoot for hours through the mountain laurel, imagining a world outside the small hollers in which he lived.” Mountain Boy is a memoir about a young man raised in a poor coal mining family in the early 1900s who wanted more than the darkness and suffocation of the Appalachian mines. He escaped the coal mining life by joining the United States Army Air Corps in World War II as a gunner and, after his plane was shot down, spent a year hiding from the Nazis in the Dutch Underground. Like all mountain folk, Walter learned to be resilient and resourceful and make do with whatever he was given. He was a young teen when he first turned to moonshine for comfort, setting in motion a life focused on self-destruction. While Walter’s battle with the demons of alcoholism would eventually destroy his family, Mountain Boy is also a story of hope and resilience. It tells of Walter’s journey to recovery and how, through love and perseverance, both he and his family found redemption. His story reminds us that our past does not predict our future.

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As a child of an alcoholic, Kathleen Kilgore experienced firsthand the effect alcoholism has on a family. She began writing in high school as a way to exercise some control over her life and has continued writing ever since. Kathleen loves the arts—dancing, theater, music and literature. She enjoys reading, doing pottery and attending the symphony, ballet and live theater. She is a member of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the New Orleans Ballet Association, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Acoustic Neuroma Association and the Gastroparesis Support Group. She has a bachelor of arts degree in theater, a master of education, and certification in multiple teaching areas. Kathleen lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, with Betty, her partner of twenty-seven years, and a mini Schnauzer named Heidi Mae.

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Contributors

Author

Kathleen Kilgore