Barbara Boatright

Barbara (Conway) Boatright is a Hoosier,transplanted in southern California in 1966. She is a graduate of Indiana University and The University of Chicago. She was a dedicated elementary school teacher in Indiana, Washington, and California from 1950 through 1982. After taking an early retirement she received intensive training and was certified by her church as a lay counselor, serving women in the large congregation. She continued to teach and/or lead women's groups there and in a variety of philanthropic organizations. During the last five years she has worked more than full time, turning her journals and memories into spell-binding life stories. Her writing is fascinating and unique because of her total honesty in revealing her emotions and immaturities through two failed marriages. In her first book she focuses on what in her youthful background seemed to contribute to her vulnerability to emotional abuse in her second marriage. She is motivated by a desire to help abused women find common ground and the strength to break the chains that bind them to their abusers. Her second book will be an account of step-parenting and a successful marriage of more than 56 years.