The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

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As Annie trudged through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by her at terrifying speeds, she captured the imagination of an apprehensive Cold War America. With William is his 26 year old youngest daughter, Ann Maria, and his 9 year old granddaughter Ellen Amelia Wilkins.

She received many offers--a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher who loved animals as much as she did. As the titles suggest, Wilkins' poetry was often about nature, especially plants, often with allegorical or Biblical associations.One of the most unique examples of a cross-country voyage occurred in the 1950s when a 63-year-old woman who had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness rode 7,000 miles coast to coast on her horses with no other company except for her dog. To top that off, she became ill and upon being admitted to the hospital was told she was terminally sick and had no more than two years left to live. Annie’s mother put the California fantasy into her head as a child regaling her with optimistic stories, an escape from the hard life of a Maine farm that saw its productivity dwindled to a bare-minimum. On Emma’s death, the Post Office (and the furniture, fittings etc) would pass to to Annie’s niece, Ellen Amelia Everett (née Wilkins).

We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908. With one hand on the saddle and the other holding a rope tethered to her low-lying, energetic little dog running alongside Tarzan and Annie atop, this threesome became a formidable “team. There is a whole lot of “south” of Maine that isn’t warm in the winter either, which she soon found out. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. She did not have a pre-planned trip, no map, and very little money—no hotel reservations, credit cards, or GPS.

But you’ll find in each Monitor news story qualities that can lead to solutions and unite us–qualities such as respect, resilience, hope, and fairness. I have no doubt that Annie is still working for (or with) her father and living with him at the Post Office.