"Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the story of Lily Casey. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town -- riding five hundred miles on her pony to get to her post. She learned to drive a car, fly a plane, and with her husband, managed a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle. Smith, Jeannette Walls's no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother.

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds: against women, Native Americans, or anyone else who didn't fit the mold.