Aileen and Roy is the story of the author’s parents: Roy Cochran, who rose from a sod house on a hardscrabble farm in western Nebraska to the state house in Lincoln as governor, and Aileen Gantt Cochran, a pioneer teacher and superintendent of schools in the Nebraska Sandhills.

 

Roy Cochran’s three terms as governor (1935–41) covered the most critical years in the history of the West, when the population was ravaged by drought and the Great Depression, and new state-federal programs—social security, the WPA—were coming into being. Aileen Gantt grew up in the small town of North Platte at the end of the nineteenth century and supported her widowed mother and siblings as a teacher and county school superintendent. Their story, drawn from unpublished memoirs and family letters, provides a unique and intimate picture of life in a small western town around the turn of the century. It is also the story of two remarkable people who faced the challenge of governing in a time of despair and change.

Mary Cochran Grimes was born in North Platte, Nebraska, and is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. She received her MA in history from Yale University and has written several articles for Nebraska History Quarterly. She lives in Hamden, Connecticut.

“Aileen and Roy contains a revealing history of frontier Nebraska, its citizens’ strong sense of community, and the state’s turbulent politics. It is also the powerful story of how an open, virtually free educational system produced exceptional leaders in all fields in Nebraska and elsewhere and advanced the goal of realizing a successful grassroots American democracy.”—Howard Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History and former president of Yale University

“While the author chronicles her parents’ admirable qualities and accomplishments, she is also candid about some of their flaws. . . . For those who want to better understand Nebraska, it is helpful to learn more about those who have left their mark on the state. Despite her intimate connection to her subjects, [Mary Cochran Grimes] has used her training as a historian to tell her parents’ story in a balanced way.”—James E. Potter, Nebraska History

“This is not just another family biography. It is a portrait of two extraordinary people who worked their way out of poverty and obscurity in the hardest of times. It is a graphic picture of those times. It is filled with insights into the people and the history of our town, our region, and our state. It is not just who they were, but how they lived and what they thought about. It is must reading, I believe, not only for local history addicts but for baby-boomers and college students, especially those who think times are tough now. It will inspire and amaze.”—Keith Blackledge, North Platte Telegraph

"Truly an inspiring read."—Linda Wommack, True West