Anna had scarlet fever when she was 10 years old, which left her totally deaf in a manner similar to her husband. She graduated from the Kansas State School for the Deaf in Olathe, Kansas and planned on going to college and becoming a teacher until she met the author's father Jesse Sr. in 1923 at a picnic for the deaf in Junction City. Anna and Jesse married six months later and lived in Manhattan, Kansas for six years where her husband did carpentry work on new buildings at Kansas State College. Three daughters were born into the family during this time but a tragic playground accident took the life of the oldest girl when she was three-years old. The family moved to Kingsville, Missouri in 1930 to help take care of her husband's family farm and his elder mother. Two more girls were born on the farm before Jess Jr. was born in 1935 and then two more girls after him.