ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Down through the years there have been a number of people who have suggested that I might possess the potential of becoming a writer...of sorts. So I began to think of myself as a self-proclaimed...."Aspiring Writer"...The word...aspiring...suggests a striving to reach some lofty end regarded as somewhat beyond one's normal expectations. And so here I sit...in my "Golden Years"...striving...to write...my autobiography.

The person that is credited with having been the first to impress upon my mind and having the greatest influence upon the concept of me becoming a writer was the (late) MARY HELEN KING HOBSON. Mary was born March 13, 1920 in Electra Texas and passed from this life in a Colorado Springs Colorado hospital, December 18, 2004

As a young girl Mary began to pursue the ambition and ultimately her lifelong career as an educator. She taught for a time in the town of Sherman Texas where she had grown to adulthood. Then she taught in the town that is famous for the manufacturing of fine western saddles...Hereford Texas. After Mary was married she followed her husband to the coal mines in West Virginia. Here she taught in the coal mining camps until her husband was accepted into a college in Denver Colorado.

Following her husband recieving his College Professor Degree they then moved to Pueblo Colorado. It was here that Mary taught music and the elementary fourth grade from 1948 until 1951. Mary and her husband adopted two sons and Mary took a sabbatical leave to get these two little boys started in life. Meanwhile this young couple had a son of their own come along. This made it necessary for Mary to stop teaching entirely until the year 1970, at which time she taught kindergarten half days for a period of six years until her youngest son started to school. Upon Mary's return to teaching she began teaching special reading programs until her retirement in 1983.

Mary held a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education and a Master of Arts Degree in Elementary Education. She was an avid Champion Bridge Player and in her younger years was an accomplished ballroom dancer as well as a Main Stream Square Dancer.

Mary modestly revealed the fact that she was a distant relative of the prominently influential Tutt families. A family that was instrumental in helping shape the structure and destiny of the....CITY OF COLORADO SPRINGS COLORADO USA.........!!!