Welcome to America between 1905 and 1945. On this website and blog you will meet two path-breaking women– a psychic grandmother and her irrepressible granddaughter– as they each crossed the United States to enter a public forum. Rosa Sutton (1860-1937) and Jane Hall (1915-1987) both faced devastating tragedy with grit and humor. A Soul on Trial – “a  fascinating tale” — tells the unprecedented story of Rosa’s battle with the United States Navy after the death of her oldest son. Twenty years later her feisty spirit inspired her orphaned granddaughter who, at ten, had already decided she would be a writer like her father Dick Wick Hall.  Historian Robin Cutler–Jane Hall’s daughter–  draws on a large archive of family papers that has never been made public to follow her mother’s transformational journey from the tiny hamlet of Salome, Arizona  to  Virginia, Manhattan, and ultimately to  Hollywood’s “dream factory” during its Golden Age.

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