Finnegan, Jeanette Gray, Jr.: - Jeanette Gray Finnegan Jr., was born in the village of Hatteras, on Hatteras Island, in what was then, the back room which had one hospital bed, a local midwife, medicines, and multiple shortwave radios which could be used to contact the hospitals on the mainlan. The village of Hatteras, one of seven on the island, was the closest place for a plane to land should the patient need to be taken off (island speak for 'one too sick to be attended to by anyone without a medical degree'). She spent her childhood surrounded by an extended family which included parents, grandparents, uncles, and kin. During World War II, while her father and uncles fought in both the Atlantic annd Pacific theaters, she, her older brother and her mother lived in the big room upstairs of of her grandparents' house. Jaye, as she is known, moved off island to attend highschool and college, and taught secondary school for thirty-five years in the Virginia public school system before coming back to the island to live. She writes in the solitude of the third floor loft of her home, with views of both sound and sea. Surrounded by books--borrowed, bought, downloaded, or checked out from various libraries---she studied the written history of the island and wove the tales in these books from fact, experience, and a grandmother's longing to convey the island's history to her grandchildren in an interesting enough way for them to enjoy the tales. The impact of growing up in this magical place, her pride in the people of the island and their accomplishments, permeate the pages.