Momma Baby and Judgie: A Memoir - Hardcover

The year 2004 marks the 100th anniversary of the births of Margaret Knoll and Theodore Roosevelt Gardner, who became known to their children, affectionately, as Momma Baby and Judgie. The memoir is written by Theodore Roosevelt Gardner II, the oldest of their children.

He commemorates the lives of Theodore Roosevelt Gardner, seventh of nine children, raised in a hard-working, God-fearing family who were poor without knowing it; and Margaret Schaeffer Knoll, the oldest of five, who wanted to be a lawyer but had to settle for marrying one instead.

Gardner shares how his father’s position in the community and his mother’s philosophy on life worked to shape him. His relationship with his father shifts and grows as he moves from childhood adoration, to adolescent conflict, to the uneasy understanding of the adult.

Through celebration and conflict, weddings and funerals, Gardner recounts his family history with honesty and wit.