About this item
Tenant farmer Frank Warren's wife dies, leaving him with two small children - Belva Jane, 5, and Stanley, 3. He spurns advice to put his children up for adoption. Instead, he hires a widow from a nearby town, Bertha Grossbaum, as a housekeeper. She is physically and psychologically abusive to the children, especially to Belva Jane who has a learning disability that affects her ability to concentrate. When Belva Jane turns 14, the housekeeper (now her stepmother) contrives to commit her to a girls' training school for delinquents. A new administrator at the school determines that Belva Jane is not delinquent and should be elsewhere. Belva Jane cannot return to her home because of the objections of her tormentor. Tests are ordered for Belva Jane, one of which labels her as "high-grade feebleminded" Based on that finding, she is transferred to what was long known as the state's Home for the Feeble-minded and assigned to care for hydrocephalic infants, a task that is emotionally devastating.
About the Author
Del Hood is a Nebraska farm boy who worked on farms but chose not to be a farmer. Instead, he got the bug to become a journalist by working at his town's weekly newspaper while in high school and during his college years worked for the Hastings Daily Tribune in Hastings, NE.
He is a graduate of Hastings College, the University Of Nebraska School Of Journalism and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.
After graduate school, he worked as a reporter and copy editor for the Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, which purchased The El Cajon Valley News in 1964. He was appointed associate editor of the El Cajon newspaper, charged mainly with writing editorials and editing columns and letters. When the newspaper encountered financial difficulty, he took on reporting duties by covering the sheriff's substation in Santee, the Grossmont Union High School District and later the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. He wrote many feature stories and some investigative pieces for what became The Daily Californian. In later years, he wrote "Hoodlines," a column about the more humorous events that occurred at his house and in the community.
Hood received many first place editorial writing awards from CNPA (California Newspaper Publisher Association) , Landmark Community Newspapers and the Society of Professional Journalists, Toys for Tots Citizen of the Year, twice awarded Kiwanian of the year, Distinguished Service Award from Grossmont College, media pro award from California Community Colleges and many other awards throughout his career.
Upon retirement in 1995 he received proclamations and commendations from President Clinton, California Governor Pete Wilson, El Cajon Mayor Joan Shoemaker with proclamation and key to the city of El Cajon, San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, US House of Representatives along with a flag flown over the White House from Duncan Hunter, California State Senate from Steve Peace, United States Senate, area School Districts, East County cities and more.
Hood's latest project is a forthcoming book entitled "History in the Headlines: Half a Century of Notable Events in El Cajon Valley, 1950-2000," written to mark the centennial of the City of El Cajon's incorporation in 1912. For the past year he has been researching newspapers from that period for brief accounts of events he feels are worthy of publication and that will be of interest to East San Diego County residents. This book will be out in 2016.
