Crystal Faye Thrasher was born December 5, 1921, in Oolitic, Indiana.

She was the fourth of six children born to Virgil Leroy and Rozella (Bennett) Knight. Crystal Knight graduated from Salisbury High School and married Joseph Martin Thrasher at the age of seventeen in 1939. At seventeen she felt ill-prepared for the course her life was set on but rose to the challenge and task of raising three children, Carol, Joseph, Jr., and Janis.

Her life in a home where parents allowed her to be herself and encouraged her to do what she wanted to do contributed greatly to her love of books and writing. Like many people during the Great Depression, her family became poor when her father lost his job.

At the age of ten, she and her siblings moved with their parents to Greene County, Indiana, where they planned to wait out the Depression...