Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy (born 1961) is an American freelance writer from Missouri.

Early life

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri (where the Pony Express began and Jesse James met his end) to Jeremiah (Jerry) Reinhard Sontheimer and Carol (Neely) Sontheimer, her publication credits began at an early age with a poem published in her hometown newspaper, The St. Joseph News-Press in 1970. While living in St. Joseph, she attended Webster Elementary School, located a few blocks from her home on North 11th Street and attended St. Joseph's Co-Cathedral. She remains a Roman Catholic and is currently a member of St. Canera parish in Neosho.

In the early 1970s her family relocated from St. Joseph to the Ozarks when her father accepted a position as a United States Department of Agriculture inspector. Her mother, a former Social Security administration claims representative, chose not to work outside the home following the family's move. The family settled in Neosho, a city with a reputation as "The Flower-Box City" that dates back to an All-American City Award in the late 1950s. Neosho is the site of Camp Crowder, a former Army post made immortal by comic strip artist Mort Walker in his strip "Beetle Bailey". Walker was just one of the camp's famous alumni. Others include Carl Reiner and Tillman Franks.

In 1975, her home was one of many destroyed when a major tornado struck Neosho.

Education

She graduated from Neosho High School in 1979 in the top one third of her graduating class, Crowder College (with an A.A. in Journalism/Liberal Arts), 1981, Missouri Southern State University (B.A. in English/History) 1983. Areas of particular emphasis included British history, the Renaissance and Reformation, and the American frontier. Her work appeared in campus publications at both colleges including. At MSSU, she was inducted into two student honor societies, Pi Gamma Mu (Social Sciences) and Sigma Tau Delta (English). At Crowder, she was one of the editors for the campus newspaper and many of her articles appeared in those pages. She was one of the editors for the first issue of the campus literary magazine, "The Crowder Quill" in the fall of 1980. At MSSU, her work appeared in "The Winged Lion" literary magazine.

Career

She worked in radio broadcasting for eight years at KBTN Radio (now KQYX) in Neosho and expanded her writing into many publications during those years. She joined the original Writers of the Six Bulls local writers group and many years later served as President during a brief revival of the group. She currently lives and works from Neosho, Missouri. Her new home in the Greenwood Edition on Neosho's far west side lies on the same property that was once Speakman Fruit Farms around the turn of the 20th century. A few straggling apple trees, a gnarled old peach tree and volunteer strawberry plants are all that remain of the prosperous farm that was on the site. Until this year, she lived and worked in the Missouri Ozarks on a rocky ridge just outside the small city of Neosho. Now a full-time writer, she has previously worked in diverse occupations including as a substitute school teacher, at Wal-Mart, Wendy's, and as a staff writer for various publications. Like many other Southwest Missouri and Ozark residents she has worked in the poultry industry. In Sontheimer Murphy's case, she worked for Tyson Foods.

As A Writer

Publications include Catholic Digest, Chick Lit Review, Coyote Wild,"Scrivener's Pen, The Dead Mule, Words,words,words, The Ozarks Mountaineer, Country Woman, Country Folk, The New York Times, 2AM, Backwoods Home Magazine, Capper's, Foliate Oak, Dragonfire, Poor Mojo's Almanac, Byline, Mosaic Minds, Nostalgia, Romantic Love Stories, FATE, Star Magazine (Kansas City Star),Underground Window, and many others. She is one of the authors whose work will appear in "Active Pets: A Sample of Writers from the first Two years of Underground Window" " during Summer 2006. Her essay "Home For The Holidays" appears in the Adams Media Collection "Classic Christmas: True Stories of Holiday Cheer and Goodwill" published in October, 2006. Her fiction has also been featured on Firefox news. Another short story, "Ghosts" is part of the "Echoes of the Ozarks III" anthology (November 2007). Her short fiction, "The Home Place" appears in the new anthology from High Hill Press, "Voices:An Anthology of Short Fiction" April 2008""

In the cyber age of the early 21st century, her work also appears on numerous web sites and in online publications. Some of these include Hub Pages, Branson1, Looking For Clues, Gogo Bits, and Rewind The Fifties. Beginning in January 2008 she will also write for and edit The Saga, the publication of the Newton County (Missouri) historical society.

From 1999 until 2003, she wrote an ongoing column for The Joplin Globe, extreme Southwest Missouri's largest daily newspaper with circulation in four states (Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas). She also wrote prior columns and features for The Neosho Post and Newton County News.

Sontheimer Murphy currently writes a local history and nostalgia column for The Neosho Daily News called "Hindsight." The Neosho Daily News is a local daily paper. "Hindsight" currently appears in the Wednesday evening edition of the paper.

She is a current member of Missouri Writers Guild, Ozarks Writers League and past president of the Writers of the Six Bulls. She is also listed in "Who's Who In America" as well as"Who's Who Among American Women'and "Who's Who In The World". She is the critique director for intelligentdiscussions.com.

She received the prestigious 2005 Editor's Pen Award from Scrivener's Pen for her story "Witches' Sixpence" which appeared in Scrivener's Pen in 2004. Two of her stories published during 2005 were nominated for the best story of the year in StorySouth's annual Million Writers contest. Her story "Shame The Devil" that appeared in the journal "Mosaic Minds" has been nominated for the Best of the 'Net award for fiction.

Personal Notes

Sontheimer Murphy is an avid reader. Favorite authors include Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Deborah Smith, Barbara Delinksy, Dorothy Dunnett, Diana Gabaldon, Sandra Brown, and many more. Other interests include a life long passion for family history, historical places and events, folklore, country music (especially that of Johnny Horton), and much more. She speaks fluent German and a smattering of other languages.

Married since 1994 to Roy W. Murphy (NHS class of 1977) she has three children, Emily, Megan, and Patrick.