Today's post is a combination ode to Veteren's Day and Memorial Day.
 
My dad, Willam Ernest Abel, known as Ernie, of Fort Payne and Gadsden, AL, served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.  He went to the University of Alabama on the GI Bill after the war and received a Bachelor of Science in Broadcasting.  He was the first person in his family to ever go to college and was the youngest in a family of seven.  Both of his parents died when he was only ten years old.

The U.S. Air Force hired him to direct training films as a civil servant.  He went on to earn a Masters degree as a Education Specialist from Auburn University in Montgomery and worked for the U.S. Navy the rest of his career reviewing top secret training programs for the navy. 

I get my love for theater, drama, singing, acting and writing from my dad.  Even though he majored in Broadcasting, he acted in school and college plays, as well as little theater after he graduated.  Both of my parents loved to dance.  They met while teaching ballroom dance for Arthur Murray.  And both of them played musical instruments--my dad: guitar and trumpet. 

My dad was one of the beta readers for my first published novel, The Haunted Housewives of Allister, Alabama, but sadly, he succumbed to kidney cancer and died before it was published in print and eBook.  I think he would have gotten the biggest kick out of knowing I finally made it as a published author with an honest-to-God printed novel. 

Here's to you, Dad, the finest man I have ever known and the best father a girl could ever have.