“Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story,” Roni Stoneman as told to Ellen Wright. University of Illinois Press, 2007.
800-621-2736, press.uillinois.edu

Seventy-five hours of interviews went into the writing of this memoir. Most television viewers remember Roni Stoneman as the “ironing board lady” on “Hee Haw,” with gap teeth, sloppy dresses and a loud voice. Besides her gift for acting, Stoneman’s also a brilliant banjo player with a life as colorful as her characters, sometimes with more to cry over than laugh at.

Poverty and success, violent marriages and joyful motherhood are all in the pages. Stoneman describes her life as something of a kaleidoscope: “Maybe that’s what most people’s lives are like – all mixed. Not really straight like in novels or a roller coaster with clear ups and downs… the good and the bad happen at the same time.”

Ellen Wright lets Stoneman’s raw voice and warm personality come through in every paragraph of the kaleidoscope, and the result is a memorable journey through back stages and bars, recording studios, bedrooms and TV soundstages, from the Appalachian mountains to Alaska and back, from joy to grief and back.
—Cara Ellen Modisett