Overhome

Overhome is the childhood memoir of Edwina Kenney Hegland. It brings to life the rise of Santa Barbara, California, from the cowboy era, through the early days of film-making, and reveals the engaging challenges of growing up under the eye of a dynamic and ambitious mother and a good-humored, hard-working father, both recently arrived from Ireland. The story of four daughters, the struggle to become, in their mother's words, “equal to men” in a new country, and their efforts to succeed in the cosmopolitan world of Santa Barbara society, are recounted in anecdotes humorous, moving, and always true-to-life. Born in 1906, Edwina Kenney became a newspaper woman and teacher, and with her husband Sheridan Hegland, a state legislator, experienced Sacramento and national politics first-hand. This warm-hearted book will give readers a fresh look at a California where horses and cars, recent immigrants and old-money thrived together in a part of the world famous for its beauty.