my bio
I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the second daughter of Glenn and Anita Hale. We later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where I eventually graduated from Memorial High School, and later received a Bachelor of Science in Sociology degree from Oklahoma State University. I know. What was I thinking?
Following graduation, I worked as a Patient Representative at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. I was there the day Elvis died. He was bluer than those blue suede shoes by the time he arrived, according to a friend in the ER. In case you were wondering. Someday I should write a book about that. Oh wait - I already did!
I moved back to Tulsa in 1980 to study court reporting. I figured if I was going to be single, I wanted to have an interesting career (and make some decent money). I returned to First Baptist Church where my family and I belonged when I was growing up. I noticed this tall, funny guy in the singles group.
At the annual Living Christmas Tree, he played the partridge in the pear tree, wearing a rooster costume complete with yellow tights. I was one of the turtle doves. I'm fairly certain it was those bird legs that did it. The turtle dove married the partridge in the spring of 1981, becoming Mrs. Ken Moody and trading in her stenographer's transcriber for marital bliss.
The following January, Ken and I moved to Fort Worth, Texas where he enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Seminary (just two blocks from the house I lived in after I was born). He graduated in 1984 and we moved to Naples, Florida where he served on staff at First Baptist Church. We had both our kids in Naples: Hannah in 1985 and Benjamin in 1987.
In 1989 we moved up the coast to Largo, Florida where Ken joined the staff at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks. Ironically, that was the church Ken grew up in. (Do we see a pattern here?) We lived there almost ten years and made so many wonderful friends. Now, I realize most of this bio is about me following the hubster's career moves. But I was busy being a mom and didn't have time for much else. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
In 1999 we moved to a small town nestled in the hills just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. After the kids flew the nest, I settled in to try my hand at writing full time. I wrote a local newspaper column for over five years, as well as numerous magazine articles and blog articles. And in 2010, I officially added "published author" to my resume with the release of Confessions of a Prayer Slacker. If you're interested, you can read more about that by clicking on the "my writing journey" in the drop down menu above.
And in 2011, Ken published his first book, Ordained Irreverence, about a young seminary graduate named Elmo Jenkins who's just beginning his ministry journey. Now there's an entire series based on Elmo's comical adventures. Ken writes under the pen name "McMillian Moody." You'll have to ask him why.
Hannah and Ben | May 2012
