Big Doc's Girl [Paperback]

"One of the rare novels that rings with sincerity from the first word to the last." -Redbook Review




Mary Clayborne, the teenage daughter of a country doctor and a piano teacher, dreams of going to a conservatory and becoming a concert pianist. When her mother falls ill, she temporarily puts aside her ambition in order to care for her younger brothers and sisters. But when another, larger tragedy strikes, she must decide whether to stay in the small town where her family lives or marry her childhood friend and join him in his lucrative medical practice in St. Louis.

The choices are not clear-cut, and the grace with which every person in this story makes his or her own decisions is a very large part of the beauty ofBig Doc's Girl. This coming of age story will relate to most adolescents with a message of resourcefulness, respect and responsiblity. Mary Madearis Bio:

Though she always considered herself a musician, Mary Myrtle Medearis was best known as the author of Big Doc’s Girl, a novel that grew out of an assigned autobiographical short story in a creative writing class. It has the distinction of having stayed in print longer than any other work of fiction by an Arkansas author. Ever tenacious, Medearis enjoyed great success as a writer and historian in spite of her humble beginnings - and partly because of them.

Mary Medearis was born in North Little Rock. As a young girl, her mother, Myrtle Hendricks taught her to play the piano and gave lessons to help support the family. Her father, Dr. Robert Medearis, practiced medicine as a country doctor. Mary, whose maternal grandparents were seasoned vaudeville performers, inherited her family’s love for music.

She decided to enroll in a speech class at Columbia University because New Yorkers had trouble understanding her Arkansas accent. Upon registering, Medearis lel3¨