About Debra Conrad

by Debra

The author of “Yuma Mesa Homesteaders” talks “all about Me!”

Hi, my name is Debra Conrad and everyone calls me “THAT Painter Lady”.

I am the author of Yuma Mesa Homesteaders 1948 and 1952.

This has been an adventure and a labor of love. The Yuma Mesa Homemakers Club formed a book committee years ago so all the Homesteader Families could have a format to leave a legacy for their families.

This group has been through three authors and countless frustrations…And then we found each other. Many flukes and a good amount of fate brought us together and this book is the result.

I am not what anyone would categorize as a writer. I am also not a historian. I am however someone who loves her hometown of Yuma, Arizona, and I want to see “All” of its history preserved.

You have to realize that I really “didn’t” Write this book. This book wrote itself. Every story was told in each homesteaders own words. All the photos are their own originals. About 1/2 of this book is filled with documents, newspaper articles and magazine articles… after I spent countless hours at the Yuma County Library and online in the Arizona archives.

After an entire year of compiling all these piles of interviews, letters and documents… I then went on to learn how to format it all into something you could read! Yes… their are tricks to writing a book – even if you don’t actually “Write” the content. :)

This book is a tiny bit of Yuma history, that I hope will give the reader a hint of the fortitude and passion the Yuma Mesa Homesteaders must have had in those early days.

Yuma Mesa Homesteaders 1948 and 1952

Born and raised in Yuma Arizona, I traveled with my parents every summer on buying trips for their antique business. In retrospect, I think my Dad was trying to learn everything about anything, and meet anyone who might help him learn it. My Dad had an unending curiosity about all things old, mechanical, and usually loud.

In the process of all the trips crisscrossing the western half of North America, I caught a bug. It is the history but, or maybe it’s the genealogy bug. It’s the best kind of bug, because there isn’t a cure, and no one would want to be cured anyway.