Meet the Author - Elizabeth Rodenz

Meet Elizabeth Rodenz, author of Josephine: A Woman of Indomitable Spirit 

Saturday, June 24th at 2:00pm in the Community Room 

Coal was king during the early years of the Industrial Age. The steel mills needed it to stoke the furnaces, the railcars ran on it, and homes were heated with it. Elizabeth’s presentation will trace the history of coal mining, life in the coal patches, unionization, strikes, explosions, and deaths and injuries that occurred throughout this country in the coal fields.

Most specifically she will speak to the 1910 strike in Westmoreland County—the women who sang their way out of the Greensburg jail and the strike that resulted in the death of eight women and six men. Elizabeth takes us on a journey that will provide insight as to why the miners’ efforts to live a life without poverty and suffering were pushed back again and again, while the few made their fortunes.

Elizabeth grew up living in a coal patch in Westmoreland County and listening to her parents’ stories about life in a coal-mining patch. Their stories resonated with her, tugged at her heart, and reached deep within. 

Since leaving the coal patch, Elizabeth has traveled many roads, but she has never forgotten her parents’ stories.  That time in her life helped shape her life and prepared her for her many journeys. She did not live a fairy tale life, but Elizabeth believes it was the life she was meant to live. Josephine: A Woman of Indomitable Spirit, a literary/historical novel, is the story she was destined to write. A family saga, Josephine was inspired by her great-grandmother and chronicles a time in American history from the 1880s into the 1920s that has rarely been told.

When attempts have been made, most often they are riddled with distortions and glorification.  This saga of social injustice captures the indomitable spirit and tenacity of the coal miners and their families, especially the women. A critique of greed, power, and servitude north of the Mason-Dixon line, the story is balanced against the misery of living in a western Pennsylvania coal patch.  

Books will be available for purchase to be signed by the author.