Welcome to my website.

This book is a reflection on my life, lived in a world of contradictions, confusion and success.

My formative years were spent in New Orleans under the oppressive atmosphere of segregation. During those impressionable years I lived as both white and black. My light skin allowed me a life of privilege. I was able to go wherever I wanted, eat wherever I wanted, shop wherever I wanted — all without experiencing the degradation imposed on “negroes” (blacks) living in a segregated south. When I moved about the city as “colored” (black), I experienced racism so demeaning it was unfit for any human being. I was told where I could not eat, drink or shop, and being told to step off the sidewalk when a white person came by was one of my most impressionable and lasting memories.

In the 1940s, we joined the migration of Creoles to California who were looking for a better life for themselves and their children.

As an adult I fought to never experience those early days of suppression again. This decision drove me the rest of my life. In 1967, I founded my first company, an insurance agency, which earned me the title of being the first African-American woman on the west coast to own an insurance agency. Then, in 1978, I founded my second company, a financial securities company, specializing in pension planning for public employees, this time earning the title of the first African-American woman to own a securities company on the west coast. After 32 years, I retired from the financial and political world. In 1995, I founded a winery in the Santa Ynez Valley, an appellation in Santa Barbara County, thus earning the title of the first African-American woman in the country to own a winery. Now, retired for the second time, I am spending my time reflecting on my life and writing my memoir.