King James Virgin: A Holiness Memoir

It is November 22, 1963, and Elaine is nine years old. She is daydreaming in her third-grade classroom when rifle fire in a distant state blasts the world outside Eastern Kentucky into her awareness. Long before President Kennedy's assassination, the Saints in her Pentecostal Holiness community have warned the End Times are imminent. America has turned its back on God, they say, and he may withdraw his protection from the nation. America is in a Cold War with the Communists who lurk behind the Iron Curtain, threatening nuclear war. Elaine's hillside home sits below a test flight route for B-52 bombers. She is often reminded of potential impending doom when the menacing planes slice through the sky and shake the ground below. Severe mental illness afflicts some family members including her cherished aunt who is periodically hospitalized in the state psychiatric hospital. She attempts to allay her anxiety and prevent disaster with obsessive-compulsive rituals

Poor by most economic standards, Elaine is rich in dreams and imagination. Although her goals of becoming a glamorous woman of the world and a Saint with the assurance of everlasting life seem incompatible, she is determined to become both. She and her younger sister are amassing a secret fortune to provide their family with modern amenities and a well-stocked bomb shelter. But within one devastating week, the country loses its leader, and Elaine's wealth evaporates. Her story, told in a voice rarely heard, is about faith and adversity, family and love during a time of dramatic societal change.