Hard Road to Heaven (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780615506760)

Jeanne Ann Vanderhoef is the 92 year-old daughter of an American U.S. Horse/Armored Cavalry Officer and a mother who wrote 54 best-selling novels for teen-agers from 1940 to 1973, Janet Lambert. When her father was sent to Poland in 1930 to share methods of equitation with the Polish Cavalry, Jeanne Ann was fortunate enough to be able to spend a great deal of time on lovely estate called Ostaczewo (Friedenau in her book) with a wonderful, German family and to study ballet in the elegant ballroom. She did not remain to further a career, but came back to the U.S. A. with her parents in 1932. She had her schooling in many places. Grade school was mostly in Lexington, Virginia. She skipped the 7th and 8th grade while living in the city of Grudziadz in the Polish Corridor. Having become bi-lingual in German, she and her mother spent six months in France where she attended a French school, though barely proficient in French. Two years of college at the University of Missouri taught her about living in a sorority and having a good time, but she resisted cluttering her brain with academics. When her father was posted to Governor's Island in New York, she became one of the early John Power models. While dating at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, she met a First (Senior) Classman, Dean T. Vanderhoef. It was 'love at first date.' A year later when he graduated, they were married in July 1940. Their first child, Craig was born in 1942 while Vandy (Dean) was overseas for three years during WWII. Their second child, a daughter Lee arrived in 1946 and a second daughter Christa in 1948. After the war they spent most of Van's 20 years of service in the Washington, D.C. area with three years in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, '47 to '50 and two years in Bangkok, Thailand, '56 to '58. Her first book, Gibbons in the Family Tree, is an outgrowth of acquiring two baby Gibbons monkeys while they were in Thailand. She maintains that one cannot live in a small town in Virginia with three children and two apes (Gibbons) without having a funny or touching tale to tell. After 63 wonderful years of marriage, Van passed away in 2003. Jeanne Ann lives in Charlottesville, Virginia where Hot Toddy, a Shih Tsu, and Fritzi, the cat, allow her to share their apartment and to grant their every whim. Craig and Lee live near-by. Christy is in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.