The Jake Mosby Story A Man for All Seasons

Ninety-year-old Jake Mosby is the grandson of slaves, a lifelong native of Prairie County, Arkansas, and one of the only African Americans selected as Arkansas' Farmer of the Year. Jake has lived in the east Arkansas delta region all his life and has endless stories about growing up in this fertile area of the state where rice, not cotton, was king.
Sharing his story with others has been Jake Mosby's lifelong dream. But, it wasn't until the 86-year old, on his way to a relative's funeral, met an amazing woman by the name of Mary Ann Campbell, who listened to his story, then urged him to contact her friend Janis F. Kearney, and follow his dream. It was just the push Jake Mosby needed.
As narrator of the Jake Mosby Story, the energetic former rice farmer paints a riveting story of a childhood in which he is thrust into becoming the breadwinner of his household at the age of 11, of his family's struggles to survive and his eventual meeting and falling in love with the beautiful girl with the beautiful voice, Frances, who would change his life forever.
The Jake Mosby Story: A Man for All Seasons, as told to Presidential biographer Janis F. Kearney was published in 2017. This new memoir chronicles the life and memories of Jake Mosby, a Korean War veteran whose experiences spans eight decades – from the racially charged Jim Crow 1920's, to the unlikely election of America's first Black president.
Mosby tells of his and Frances' decision, early in their marriage, to adopt his younger siblings who were orphaned when both parents died one year apart. "I suddenly felt the responsibility to work extremely hard and take care of my family…there were so many feet under my dinner table." These included his and Frances' own children.
Jake Mosby remembers with great reverence, his time as a soldier, and his deportment to Korea marked by getting lost in the faraway land, the only thing saving him, he recalls, was his bag full of "O Henry" chocolate bars and his good memory – he could sing a Korean song he'd learned in basic training.
Jake Mosby is a master storyteller whose amazing journey is worthy of telling and worthy of sharing with readers of all ages.

Jake Mosby is a former rice farmer who grew up and raised his family in Prairie County, Arkansas. After his father's early death, Jake was hired out to local rice farmers at the age of nine, and worked to save his mother and siblings. Jake and his brothers formed a gospel quintet, which was the impetus to his meeting the love of his wife, the love of his life. He is a Korean War Veteran who received a Purple Heart for outstanding service in Korea. Janis F. Kearney is an author, book publisher, and writing instructor. She was born to southeast Arkansas cotton sharecroppers, attended Gould Public Schools, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a B.A. in Journalism. She served nine years as a project manager and public affairs director in Arkansas state government. She served briefly as managing editor for civil rights legend Daisy L. Bates' historic Arkansas State Press Newspaper, before purchasing and becoming publisher of the newspaper in 1988, upon Bates retirement.

From 1993-2001, Janis served in the Clinton Administration, working briefly in the white house media affairs office before being appointed by President Clinton, as Director of Communications for the US Small Business Administration. In 1995, she was selected by President Clinton as the first-ever Personal Diarist to a President. She served in that role through June 2001.

In July 2001, Janis was selected as a fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and continued the fellowship for two years. In 2003, Janis and her husband founded Writing our World Publishing, a small, independent publishing company. She has written or co-written eight books, including her first, the critically acclaimed Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir. Other WOW Publishing books include Something to Write Home About: Memories of a Presidential Diarist; Conversations: Hope to Harlem; Daisy: Between a Rock and a Hard Place; Sundays with TJ: 100 Years of Memories on Varner Road, and, Writing our Lives: An Anthology of Southern Storytellers, a compilation of short memoirs.

In 2014, Janis founded the Celebrate! Maya Project. Its mission is to promote the life and legacy of Dr. Angelou throughout Arkansas' communities and schools. She also founded the Read.Write.Share Writers Project, which includes memoir-writing seminars, lectures and workshops around the state, including the WOW! Spring Writers Weekend held in Arkansas each year.

Her honors include:
•2016 Inductee into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame
•Former president, and current board member of the AR Pioneer Chapter of Pen Women
• Serves as executive board member of LifeQuest of Arkansas
•Serves as board member of the AR Women's Hall of Fame
•Serves as board president of the International Women's Forum of Arkansas.
•Founder and president of the Celebrate! Maya Project of Arkansas.
•Inductee into the National History Makers Archive
•Recipient of the University of Arkansas' Outstanding Alumni Award
•Recipient of the prestigious University of Arkansas Journalism Lemke Award.