Robert Hitt Neill was raised on a Mississippi Delta plantation, was an honor student and all-State football player at Leland High, then played at Ole Miss on national championship teams. There he met Betsy, a top six beauty at a college famous for its beautiful coeds. It was love at first sight! They wed after his graduation, and commissioning as a navy officer, and after he survived a combat tour during Vietnam, settled on Brownspur Plantation, where he farmed, but enjoyed being a closet writer for 20 years. His first book, The Flaming Turkey, was a small press bestseller, and its sequel, Going Home, was the #2 Outdoor Book in the country. His third, All in the same year, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Neill rented out his land, and became a writer. The Book of Betsy is his 14th title. Another of his humor/nostalgia works, The Jakes, was also nominated for the Pulitzer, as was a newspaper series. He wrote a weekly syndicated column for 25 years, as well as thousands of magazine articles, and listed nationally as a storyteller, until a broken back curtailed his traveling. Bob & Betsy had a wonderful marriage, raised several children— not all blood kin — and were immersed in almost all aspects of rural/small town life: school, church, sports, dances & parties, hospitality— even prison! They both were involved for decades in the world’s largest prison ministry, Kairos, especially serving with Lonnie & Cindy Herring, who was Betsy’s best friend since they had been roommates and sorority sisters at Ole Miss. Betsy died suddenly the week of their 55th Anniversary. Two years later, Bob & Cindy, who had been widowed for 10 years, fell in love and were married. They live in Sumner, Mississippi.