Irish Mongrel Child

Hilarious mostly true stories of a post WWII child growing up in an Irish bar in a small mountain town of Western Pennsylvania with her reliable grandfather and decidedly erratic mother.

Conceived with passion and lust by a handsome paratrooper and an Irish American woman with alburn hair and smokey gray/green eyes, and reared 'by the book' with unfettered freedom, common sense, and nonsense, the Irish Mongrel Child experienced and understood the essence of life by age eleven: love, trust and evil.. With the best of intentions, her mother rejected her at birth, left her outside in a storm to experience the beauty of lightening, and weaned her overnight when she was exactly nine months old. This is a laugh-out-loud romp through the life of a child who began work washing beer glasses at age four and declared herself a vegetarian the same year. It's a love story during a time when life was simpler, when children were free to roam, explore, learning as they went..

Ruby, reared by her mom and grampa with unfettered freedom, common sense and nonsense, began her comedy career standing on a wooden box behind the bar in her grampa’s pub where she washed the beer glasses. She was four. It was l947. In l953 her grampa got cancer, she lost her job and her home. The birth of her son Kirk, and an ill-fated marriage interrupted high school. They moved from the mountains of Pennsylvania to Atlanta, GA. Kirk was diagnosed as a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy; she began college at Georgia State University and got a divorce. A couple of decades later, another husband and two more children, she earned her B.A. from Columbia College, Chicago. In l979 she moved with her children to San Francisco to do stand-up as a means of therapy as the second divorce canceled her health insurance. She has shared stages with: Brad Garrett, Paula Poundstone and Robin Williams. Seven years ago Ruby sold her home in California to travel the world, learn, write, make new friends and sometimes teach ESL. She is presently traveling in South America. Her next book, My Lucky Guy, due out in the summer of 2014 is a memoir of the forty three years she shared with Kirk; about lives well lived in spite of the pundits. Ruby, reared by her mom and grampa with unfettered freedom, common sense and nonsense, began her comedy career standing on a wooden box behind the bar in her grampa’s pub where she washed the beer glasses. She was four. It was l947. In l953 her grampa got cancer, she lost her job and her home. The birth of her son Kirk, and an ill-fated marriage interrupted high school. They moved from the mountains of Pennsylvania to Atlanta, GA. Kirk was diagnosed as a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy; she began college at Georgia State University and got a divorce. A couple of decades later, another husband and two more children, she earned her B.A. from Columbia College, Chicago. In l979 she moved with her children to San Francisco to do stand-up as a means of therapy as the second divorce canceled her health insurance. She has shared stages with: Brad Garrett, Paula Poundstone and Robin Williams. Seven years ago Ruby sold her home in California to travel the world, learn, write, make new friends and sometimes teach ESL. She is presently traveling in South America. Her next book, My Lucky Guy, due out in the summer of 2014 is a memoir of the forty three years she shared with Kirk; about lives well lived in spite of the pundits. Ruby, reared by her mom and grampa with unfettered freedom, common sense and nonsense, began her comedy career standing on a wooden box behind the bar in her grampa’s pub where she washed the beer glasses. She was four. It was l947. In l953 her grampa got cancer, she lost her job and her home. The birth of her son Kirk, and an ill-fated marriage interrupted high school. They moved from the mountains of Pennsylvania to Atlanta, GA. Kirk was diagnosed as a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy; she began college at Georgia State University and got a divorce. A couple of decades later, another husband and two more children, she earned her B.A. from Columbia College, Chicago. In l979 she moved with her children to San Francisco to do stand-up as a means of therapy as the second divorce canceled her health insurance. She has shared stages with: Brad Garrett, Paula Poundstone and Robin Williams. Seven years ago Ruby sold her home in California to travel the world, learn, write, make new friends and sometimes teach ESL. She is presently traveling in South America. Her next book, My Lucky Guy, due out in the summer of 2014 is a memoir of the forty three years she shared with Kirk; about lives well lived in spite of the pundits. Bio: Ruby Cooper Ruby, reared by her mom and grampa with unfettered freedom, common sense and nonsense, began her comedy career standing on a wooden box behind the bar in her grampa’s pub where she washed the beer glasses. She was four. It was l947.