Most of you probably know me as Lottie Deno but I wasn’t born with that name. On April 21, 1844 I was born Carlotta J. Thompkins. I lived on a plantation in Warsaw, KY. Most people would say we were “well to do”. My father sold horses and tobacco abroad and sold hemp to the shipbuilders in Detroit. He was also an excellent gambler, one of the many things he taught me since there were no sons. He took me on my first trip to New Orleans in 1858. Quite an adventure for a thirteen year old girl on a southbound river packet. My father owned slaves and my nanny was a 7′ tall woman named Mary Poindexter. She went everywhere I went. Little did we know then that many of the places he took us we would revisit again later in life. I sure do miss her. I need to go because it’s time for the Golden Gossip Club to meet.