Stay in the Buggy

Kate Wilson glanced at her father as they trundled down the unpaved road. The one-hundred-mile journey would take all day and thirteen-year-old Kate was worried. Her father dreamed of her becoming a teacher but she had never been away from home and had only attended a one-room school. At the teacher's college she found the students were much older. The vast campus was a shock. She gained strength from her father's weekly letters encouraging her to "stay in the buggy."

Life wasn't easy on the Dakota prairie in the early 1900s and Kate's experiences at that school helped her develop self-reliance-something she would need in the years ahead as she coped with the Great Depression, the devastating Dustbowl Days, and several wars. Through her personal struggles and multiple roles and careers she remembered her father's advice, and later often repeated it to inspire her own children and others. An orphanage in India now bears her name.

Kate's story celebrates her creative ability to do much with little, and shows how one person can make a difference in a tumultuous world.