Miss Hildreth Wore Brown by Olivia deBelle Byrd

With storytelling written in the finest Southern tradition, Olivia deBelle Byrd delves with wit and amusement into the world of the Deep South with all its unique idiosyncrasies and colloquialisms.  The characters dance across the pages in humorous anecdotes that will delight Southerners and baffle many a non-Southerner.  Miss Hildreth Wore Brown—Anecdotes of a Southern Belle is guaranteed to provide an afternoon of laugh out-loud reading and hilarious enjoyment.

Byrd defiantly writes with a Southern Belle thought.  I loved the humor she used to get her point across.  It is as though you are right there in the South with her experience each anecdote of life that she comes in contact with.  Each chapter is a short quick read.  She covers everything from funerals to weddings, sassin' to groundin', food to color, obsessions to crazy rules, you name it she wrote about it with whit in this book.  

Back cover Blurb:

While Olivia deBelle Byrd was repeating one of her many Southern stories for the umpteenth time, her long-suffering husband looked at her with glazed over eyes and said, “Why don’t you write this stuff down?” Thus was born Miss Hildreth Wore Brown—Anecdotes of a Southern Belle. If the genesis for a book is to shut your wife up, I guess that’s as good as any. 

On top of that, Olivia’s mother had burdened her with one of those Southern middle names kids love to make fun. To see “deBelle” printed on the front of a book seemed vindication for all the childhood teasing.

With storytelling written in the finest Southern tradition from the soap operas of Chandler Street in the quaint town of Gainesville, Georgia, to a country store on the Alabama state line, Olivia deBelle Byrd delves with wit and amusement into the world of the Deep South with all its unique idiosyncrasies and colloquialisms. 

The characters who dance across the pages range from Great-Aunt Lottie Mae, who is as “old-fashioned and opinionated as the day is long,” to Mrs. Brewton, who calls everyone “dahling” whether they are darling or not, to Isabella with her penchant for mint juleps and drama.

Humorous anecdotes from a Christmas coffee, where one can converse with a lady who has Christmas trees with blinking lights dangling from her ears, to Sunday church, where a mink coat is mistaken for possum, will delight Southerners and baffle many a non-Southerner. There is the proverbial Southern beauty pageant, where even a six-month-old can win a tiara, to a funeral faux pas of the iron clad Southern rule—one never wears white after Labor Day and, dear gussy, most certainly not to a funeral.

Miss Hildreth Wore Brown—Anecdtoes of a Southern Belle is guaranteed to provide an afternoon of laugh-out-loud reading and hilarious enjoyment.

Olivia deBelle Byrd was born and bred in the South. She is a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College and a Kappa Delta. She resides in Panama City, Florida, with her husband, Tommy, and is the proud mother of Tommy Jr. and Elizabeth.

For more information about this book visit Oliviah deBelle Byrd's web site here.

I want to thank the author for providing me a copy of this book for this review.