To begin with most people know me as Cile. That is the name I use for my writing and I have latched onto it for everything. I was born in Wichita, Kansas, and grew up there. We spent our time at the family business Truck Parts and Equipment and in the Sand Hills of Nebraska where my mother's family help settle in the 1860's as ranchers. Her sister was a teacher at an Indian Government school on the Rosebud Reservarion of South Dakota and we spent our lives there every chance we could get. This was the life I loved. I graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1954 and went to work at the company business. After a year I had decided to become a teacher. I got my teaching certificate and taught in Conway Springs, Ks the first year and at a country school in the Sand Hills south of Valentine, Nebraska the next year. That is where I met and married my husband Billy. We ranched in Nebraska and on the east edge of the Rosebud Resesrvation in South Dakota. We had 4 children Shirlee, Jim, Keith and Cathy. Our lives were changed in l977 when the government decided there would be no more whiteman leases. This put us out of business because our ranch was 5,000 acers half deeded and half Indian leased land. We sold out and tried to start over in Oregon but the place we bought was to small to support a family. We sold it and moved to Wichita where Billy went to work for the family business. He retired in 1996 and in 2002 we moved to a smaller place in Harper, Ks. In 2004 we lost our daughter Cathy to brest cancer. A few days short of a year later we lost Billy. Shirlee and family are in Casper, Wy, Jim and family are in the area near Pretty Prairie, Ks and he still works at Truck Parts. Keith and wife live near McCallaster, Ok. and Cathy's family live on a farm south of Rose Hill, Ks. I moved to Casper a little over three years ago due to health problems. I live in the house out back of Shirlees. (No not that little one) I can look out of my windows and not only see the mountains but I can also see buffalo grazing. Shirlee's raise buffalo. I am at HOME ON THE RANGE again.
