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Miss Ollie: Tennessee Madam
Jilted, betrayed, framed. Maligned, libeled, abused. From Prohibition to the Great Depression to WWII, Ollie Pope rises in a man’s world from poverty and despair to become a formidable force in town, turning her enemies against themselves. Miss Ollie's story is one of corruption, racism, hypocrisy, and the appearance of kindness in unexpected places.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 10, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 5, 2017
I think it is delicious. A guilty pleasure from start to finish. I fell in love with most of the characters, good and bad. The story is well crafted, and the characters...the characters....you have to see for yourself. A thorough pleasure
March 31, 2019
Being a native of Jackson, Tennessee I heard about Miss Ollie when I was just a kid. I picked this book up as soon as I saw it in the library. It's a poignant story about a desparate young woman and what she did to survive during hard times, back when women didn't have the options they do today.
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November 30, 2017Book Review
Miss Ollie, Tennessee Madam, by Mary Ann Sanders. 2017. CreateSpace Publishing.
Written by a Jackson, Tennessee native, Mary Ann Sanders, who now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, the book is historical fiction with only the main character, Ollie Hemby Pope, and her direct relatives as so named. Others have been changed but the locations and events depicted are real.
Miss Ollie struggled with many life events including poverty and having to give up her child, her life as a prostitute and a madam, bootlegger and her rise to a prominent local citizen. These are told through various chapters, as are the dealings she had with others (many prominent local citizens). Her dealings with political, legal officials and business and church leaders are noted in the language of the times and people. The lifestyle of Jacksonians in the early Twentieth Century is laid out in its bare and real nature, with racial, religious and cultural biases shown as they were. As her motto stated: “I am just a businesswoman providing a service to the community,”
She survived poverty, changing laws, efforts by “holier-than-thou” people to close her “house of iniquity” while helping many in the community in their financial straits, and she included stories about the military during World War II at the local airfield.
The author closes the book with an Epilogue of the facts about Miss Ollie’s life, references of sources, and even recipes (from Miss Ollie and others) she noted in the narrative.
While the book may not be a true “genealogical” record of local people, it does include much information which should be of interest to readers and researchers of Jackson history and families during the last century.
Miss Ollie, Tennessee Madam, by Mary Ann Sanders. 2017. CreateSpace Publishing.
Written by a Jackson, Tennessee native, Mary Ann Sanders, who now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, the book is historical fiction with only the main character, Ollie Hemby Pope, and her direct relatives as so named. Others have been changed but the locations and events depicted are real.
Miss Ollie struggled with many life events including poverty and having to give up her child, her life as a prostitute and a madam, bootlegger and her rise to a prominent local citizen. These are told through various chapters, as are the dealings she had with others (many prominent local citizens). Her dealings with political, legal officials and business and church leaders are noted in the language of the times and people. The lifestyle of Jacksonians in the early Twentieth Century is laid out in its bare and real nature, with racial, religious and cultural biases shown as they were. As her motto stated: “I am just a businesswoman providing a service to the community,”
She survived poverty, changing laws, efforts by “holier-than-thou” people to close her “house of iniquity” while helping many in the community in their financial straits, and she included stories about the military during World War II at the local airfield.
The author closes the book with an Epilogue of the facts about Miss Ollie’s life, references of sources, and even recipes (from Miss Ollie and others) she noted in the narrative.
While the book may not be a true “genealogical” record of local people, it does include much information which should be of interest to readers and researchers of Jackson history and families during the last century.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews