A: I created the novel based on many core truths. Tylene and John did know each other for eleven years before they married, and they waited because she wanted to further her education first. She also did work in a small office up a winding staircase above John’s auto shop, and she did keep the shop’s books.
Among other core truths: Tylene was a teacher and administrator. Tylene was taught football by her father when she was a young girl. Her father was injured in the 1909 Zephyr tornado, and years later, he died as a result of the injuries he had sustained. Tylene’s mother was ill in 1944 and died a year later. Tylene drove a truck, loved pecan pie, loved football and baseball, and grew up on a ranch. Her college minor was voice. John’s hobby was making fishing lures. She and John wanted dearly to be parents. John also loved football, and together, after the invention of television, they would watch football broadcasts with the sound off. When their grandniece Jean once asked them why they turned down the sound, John’s reply was: “We don’t need someone telling us what we already know.”
I framed the story based on these core truths. I did so because after having completed my research, I realized there were too many dead ends. The story had been lost to time. I could have let it go, or I could novelize her life. I felt it was a story that needed to be told, so I fictionalized the accounts based on so many core truths.
Q: How do you think Tylene’s story would be different if she were living today?
A: She was far ahead of her time. John was also ahead of his time in his support for her—not only her desire to postpone marriage to pursue higher education but her willingness to coach football in the 1940s. What strength that took from both of them!
What I think would be different today is the household gender expectations. As we see in the story, John was supportive, but it would not have occurred to him to do the dishes when Tylene was in a hurry. Instead, he’d offer to drive her through back roads he was familiar with. We never see John cook dinner. It wasn’t something a man would do in the 1940s. We would see that today.
What I do think would be different today in regard to her coaching football is that Tylene would find this generation of young men more open to women in football than they were seventy years ago. My experience has told me that because Tylene knew her stuff, the young men would be eager to learn from her and play for her.
I truly believe that with women coming up the ranks in football, we will see a shift in their role—not only on the field but in the media as well.
Q: Tylene seems like a very unique woman to her time—do you think this is the case, or do you think circumstances made her so?
A: Tylene was such a unique woman in her time that had she not been, she could not have been prepared to deal with the circumstances she faced. She had spent her life preparing for that moment—she just didn’t know it.
She also married a man who knew she was different—pursuing a master’s degree at night and during the summers, all the while staying devoted to her students. And what an arm! She could throw a football—and a baseball!—with the best of them.
Q: John seems very supportive of Tylene and her choices—in what ways does their marriage resemble a marriage of today? In what ways is it different?
A: Their marriage reminds me a lot of mine. What’s different is that my husband helps out with the household chores. Full disclosure: He handles most of them. John did not. But that wasn’t on men’s radar in the 1940s.
John never went to college. He worked on cars. It’s hard to imagine that he’d come home and fix dinner while his wife was off coaching a football team. It just wouldn’t have happened then.
But he was so supportive that he was willing to risk his own livelihood just to support her journey. He dearly loved Tylene.
Q: You were a football coach yourself, which is groundbreaking in its own way. What was your journey like?
A: Like Tylene’s experience, I, too, had ups and downs. But the ups far outweighed the downs, so much so that when the alarm would go off at 4:30 A.M., I’d jump out of bed with a spring in my step. And I’m a night owl! I remember telling one coach that with practices at 6:00 A.M., I was more likely to arrive having not yet gone to bed. I did that, too, a few times.
I loved working with the young men. It was a tough season—we were winless, although we received a forfeit after the completion of the season, so we finished 1–10. We never experienced the joy of victory, and that was disappointing, given all the work put into the season. But the young men never gave up. Working with them was pure joy.
Q: Football is such a Texas sport! What do you think creates the connection between Texas and football?
A: I didn’t grow up in Texas. I was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but my family spent vacation time in Dallas when I was twelve years old. I decided then that, when I grew up, I would make Texas my home. I fell in love with the people. I thought they were kind and friendly. Everywhere we went in Dallas, I felt a sense of community. It seemed no one was a stranger.
And that’s what I think makes football in Texas special. It’s about community. There are so many small towns in such a huge state that football fields have historically been the largest gathering spot in any locale. Link the toughness of the sport and the desire for hometown pride, and the combination makes for a perfect storm.
Q: Have you been to Brownwood? How is its team doing today?
A: When I first heard that Tylene had coached football in Texas, I was thrilled. When I heard it was in Brownwood, I was ecstatic. You can’t help but think of Brownwood when you think of football in Texas. Brownwood is one of the state’s most iconic football towns, thanks largely to Brownwood High School’s Hall of Fame coach Gordon Wood, who led the Lions to seven state championships from 1960 to 1981. The Lions finished the 2017 regular season with a record of 6–5.
Although I’ve never attended a Lions football game, I have been to Brownwood, and not just to research Tylene’s story. I covered a football game for the Dallas Morning News in the 1990s at Howard Payne University, Tylene’s alma mater. I remember the press box lost power to its phone hookups, and I had to go to the local hospital to transmit my story. They were great in allowing me to use a telephone! Afterward, my husband, daughters, and I made a beeline for barbecue at Underwood’s Café. I have nothing but fond memories of my time spent in Brownwood.
Praise
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll cheer on Tylene Wilson, a woman who overcomes the odds to make her mark in a man’s world.
This is more than a book about World War II or football—it’s a novel about personal courage, perseverance, small-town life, and big-time dreams.
“A beautiful tale that stays in your heart long after you finish reading When the Men Were Gone. A delightful story, well written and touching. Looking forward to reading many more books by Lewis.”
—Jodi Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Mornings on Main
“Marjorie has written a wonderfully touching and beautiful story. . . . Tylene makes me laugh, cry, and cheer for her in ways I have not done in a long time. I only wish the real Tylene were here to see what Marjorie has accomplished. I was literally having chills. I look forward to the day her book launches into the world!”
—Diane Les Becquets, bestselling author of Breaking Wild
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
WHEN THE MEN WERE GONE. Copyright © 2018 by Marjorie Herrera Lewis. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be r
eproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Alicia Tatone
Cover photographs © Ildiko Neer/Arcangel (woman); © Bruce M. Herman/Getty Images (trees); © David P. Smith/Shutterstock (field); © Geoffrey Kuchera/Shutterstock (planes); © MaraQu/Shutterstock and © MaxyM/Shutterstock (textures)
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-283604-5
Version 08152018
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-283605-2
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When the Men Were Gone Page 18
