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This is the world that Opal Riley was born into on January 28th, 1920. She was the fourth of twelve rambunctious, creative, brilliant, prank loving children growing up on a working farm in the rural community of Enon. The first world war was over and southern Mississippi was still vexed about the American civil war and all that it had cost them financially and otherwise. Only the towns had electrical power and paved roads while the rural communities were still living like it was1820. The great depression of 1929 did not help. The people were angry and felt that their needs were being ignored. An element of that rage is still present today for those who stayed on the land or nearby.

Opal navigated life as it was thrown at her. She survived a childhood of cruel elementary school teachers, home grown medicine, pine sledding, dangerous snakes, falling out of trees, riding large farm animals, drowning, Baptist revival meetings, boyfriends, farm chores, rape, Uncle Jack’s bootlegging business, skinny dipping in the woods, running away, discovering a KKK meeting place, and her siblings. As she headed into the world she was sure that she was ready for anything.

She went to beauty culture school so she could travel the world and have a skill that would make her employable anywhere. After working in Vicksburg where she enjoyed the nightlife and the riverboat scene, she boarded a passenger ship in New Orleans that was bound for Panama. On the way she had a memorable day touring distilleries and houses of strange repute in Old Havana when she was only hoping for a tour of the city. Opal sampled everything Panama had to offer until the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed everything. The Canal Zone was vulnerable and German subs were sinking ships off their coast. It was wartime. She made some wonderful friends but eventually decided it was time to go home. In 1942 she boarded a DC3 bound for home.

When she was in high school Opal had given a sweet young black girl a manicure with red nail polish. That made her unemployable in her hometown. She found a job as a manicurist in The Hattiesburg Hotel where she met a handsome Army officer from the north. He was in training to enter the war. She had no idea how different their lives had been up to that very moment, but she was about to find out.