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Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, January 08, 2015, Page 1
Author to hold book signing in Mount Ayr Sunday
A minister/author with local ties will hold a book signing in Mount Ayr next week. Rev. Bill Cotton will meet the
public and sign copies of his second book, "Iowa Roots: Ruminations on a Unique Land, Uncommon People," Sunday,
January 11 at the United Methodist Church in Mount Ayr. "I am interested in coming to Mount Ayr," said Cotton,
"because during the 1980s I was District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church in the Creston area. I
worked with pastors and laity when the rural crisis hit." Cotton said his book highlights many of the relationships
he formed during that time. "One section of the books tells of that struggle and lifts up some local folks," he
said. "The Rev. Ed Kail, pastor at Mount Ayr, David Jennings, now of Tingley, Sister Bernadine Pieper and others
were so helpful to farm families." Cotton recounts how a charitable organization was formed to assist families
during the farm crisis. "After the bank failed, it was in Mount Ayr that a rural program, 'Neighbor Helping
Neighbor,' was created that over the next years raised over $300,000 to aid Iowa farm families." Cotton tells
the story of the efforts of David Jennings. "During the crisis David worked the crisis hot line," he said, "and
he was the guy who talked a number of farmers out of committing suicide."
Stories such as those caused Cotton to reflect on his time working in the area.
"Being new to southern Iowa at that time," he said, "I learned to respect the courage and grit of the people and so I
try to help the reader understand how these uncommon people give Iowa its character." Cotton is a native of east
Texas and moved to Iowa after seminary in 1961. He holds a bachelors degree from East Texas State University and
Masters of Divinity degree from the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He received an
honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from Simpson College in recognition of his work with rural people in the 1980s.
Photographs courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2015
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