A Rising Star in Appalachian Literature (2005)

FEATURED AUTHOR—GRETCHEN MORAN LASKAS A Rising Star in Appalachian Literature George Brosi In an important way, the career of Gretchen Moran Laskas as a traditional Appalachian writer started in 1992 in a Burger King parking lot in New Haven, Connecticut. Her husband, Karl Laskas, was working on a Masters in International Relations at Yale. He was pretty clear about his career path, but Gretchen was feeling like she was merely his appendage. Karl asked, "What do you want to do?" Gretchen answered that she would like to be a writer. "Who's stopping you?" Karl replied. At that moment, more than ever before, Gretchen fully realized that she really could make it a priority to concentrate on this dream and try to make it a reality. Just a few months earlier, Gretchen's maternal grandmother, Virginia Kuhn Wilson of Fairmont, West Virginia, had died, and Gretchen had become the family's leading genealogist. Her knowledge of family stories provided real substance for Gretchen's writing focus. Gretchen's maternal grandfather was the son of a Fairmont clothier who was the grandson of a man Laskas refers to as a "ruthless land-owner," himself the son-in-law of David Trowbridge, a Methodist Circuit Rider whose stepmother was the only family member in her generation—centered in Preston County, West Virginia, and Winchester, Virginia—who was not killed by Indians. This colorful family, which had been in America since 1631, the Virginia mountains since 1752, and West Virginia since 1774, had long intrigued Gretchen. The family of her father was equally fascinating. Gerald Moran was born inArthurdale, West Virginia, the town created by the New Deal to serve coal miners like his father, Bruce Moran from Gladesville in Preston County, and his mother's father Martin Riggleman, who married Bessie Dalton. Both of Bessie's parents had the same last name and were "Guineas," multi-racial isolates from Barbour County whose background is presumably similar to the Melungeans of Hancock County, Tennessee. The Dalton family tree goes back simultaneously to Valley Forge and to an indentured servant who married a slave. "This was one of our big family secrets, until the 1970s," Gretchen admits. Martin Riggleman's mother was raised in the Elkins Orphan's home, and his father was a Randolph County teamster, the son of a Methodist minister. "If you pick a point in my family tree, either side," Gretchen avers, "you can't go back more than a generation or two before you find a minister. That's been true for hundreds of years, and is still true today, which makes it awfully hard on the rest of us." Gretchen's parents, Gerald and Emily, met while studying to be teachers at Fairmont State College. Gerald went on to attend Vanderbilt University and became a librarian at Alderson-Broadus College in Philippi, West Virginia. Gretchen was born there in 1969, followed by Laura, now a reading specialist, and Gerallyn, now an accountant, both born there in the early 1970s. In 1975 the family moved to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh, where Gerald Moran became head librarian at Geneva College. Gretchen graduated from Beaver Falls High School in 1987 and met her future husband, Karl, at a church-sponsored ice cream social during freshman orientation at the University of Pittsburgh. "That sounds too wholesome to be true," Gretchen admits, "doesn't it? But it is." They started dating the next February and married in August of 1990 after he graduated. She graduated in 1992 with double majors in English Literature and Philosophy and minors in German and Spanish. Gretchen's first success as an author came soon after she resolved in the Burger King parking lot to concentrate on writing. In 1992 a piece about using genealogy to understand history was accepted by Wonderful West Virginia magazine. In 1993 Karl finished at Yale, and the couple moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies under Zbigniew Brzezinski. Gretchen worked as a researcher in the law firm which had represented Ronald Reagan during Iran-Contra. Karl later began working for the international wing of the AFL-CIO and Gretchen went...