Cracker's Bend

Cracker’s Bend does exist! It is not a town, but a small, close-knit farming community. Jean Thorton came here to live with her grandmother after her biological mother gave her up at birth. Granny Kennedy O’Slaney was born here on this 40 acre farm in 1899. Her parents, Oliver and Lou Goodpasture Kennedy, settled here on a hot July day in 1888—their wedding day. Charlie was born a year later around Christmas time, then 11 years later Bertha was born. “Granny” O’Slaney lived off the land most of her life while raising her four small children as a single parent. Life’s lessons were hard; how faith in God comes through when everything else seems to fail. Jean never gave up though, becoming an author of children’s adventure books, drawing from her own experiences, and telling her tales of family and growing up in this place that never changes.