83-year-old Doris Willis Gracia has published her first book of some of her funniest life experiences many of which took place in the

Lawrence County and Jeff Davis County areas.
Gracia moved to Silver Creek as a young girl with her parents Laurence and Lilly Willis. Her dad was an oilfield worker and her mom the county nurse for some thirty years.
“My mom always said she wanted to move to Mississippi,” stated Gracia. “My dad was an oilfield worker and tended to drink a lot. She knew Mississippi was a dry state then and he couldn’t readily get alcohol. Sure enough, after we moved here, he quit drinking and even joined the church.”
Gracia attended Silver Creek School and then Copiah-Lincoln Jr. College to receive her nursing degree. She was a student nurse at Methodist Hospital in Hattiesburg and worked at the Jeff Davis Hospital and ECF in the 1960s.
What began as a book of memoirs for her grandchildren developed into a publication of what she says are the “funniest seventy-eight stories you’ll ever read in your lifetime!”
“I remember everything just like it was yesterday,” states the 83-year-old. “It’s God’s gift. The book started out as stories for my grandchildren but my daughter wanted to publish it for others to enjoy.”
In her first book Gracia tells of personally meeting 12-year-old Elvis Presley at a church singing and giving him some advise, riding the train caboose car, ghostly happenings at ECF and many, many others that will tickle your funny bone.
Gracia has many interesting stories and a lot to tell. She says there just wasn’t enough room to put all her stories in one book so she is now working on her second.
The Girl from Silver Creek, Book 1 is now available at www.lulu.com.