Charleston Reporter Recalls Lucking into Great Story

By Bill Lair, Managing Editor
Mattoon Journal Gazette/
Charleston Times-Courier

Great stories seldom walk in the front door of a newspaper office. So, when a couple women came to the Charleston Times-Courier office one spring day in 1993 and asked to have a photographer take a picture of them and their sisters, it didn't sound newsworthy.

The sisters had come to Charleston for their mother's funeral and wanted a group photo. I couldn't understand why this was something that should be printed in the newspaper until they showed me "the picture." It was a black-and-white photo of the 10 sisters, between the ages of 2 and 16, standing on the west steps of the Coles County Courthouse in 1942 when the girls were separated from their parents by a judge's order.

"We had our picture taken on the courthouse steps when we were taken from our mother," said Virginia Rackley, the oldest daughter, "and now we came to have our picture taken on these steps again on the day our mother was taken from us."

I agreed to take their picture on the courthouse steps in the same positions they stood in 1942 and then we all moved inside to a spare room where I spoke with all 10 sisters for a story.

Have you ever tried talking to 10 people at once? It's like "herding cats," to use a well-worn phrase. When one sister told me something, another would jump in and add something else. I had a heck of a time figuring out which sister told me what. But their story is so unique, so heart-wrenching, so inspiring, that even I couldn't mess it up.

The 10 sisters have a wonderful story about family, separation and love that has a lesson for us still today.

Back to the 10 Sisters: A True Story main page

Back to WILL Pressroom's 10 Sisters