Description

New memoir shares Memphis author’s inspiring story
MEMPHIS – In her heartbreaking new memoir, “To Cripple a Butterfly,” Memphis author Jetta Remonia Owens shares her inspirational story from growing up in a house filled with abuse and neglect to defying the odds and realizing her lifelong dream of working in the health and beauty industry.

Written with Debra Walter, also of Memphis, the book details how Owens’ mother was hardly home to care for her and her six sisters, and when she was there, they usually received severe beatings and abuse. Like a butterfly that’s emerged from its cocoon too early, she and her sisters were crippled by exposure to cruelty and brutality at a young age. The only protection they received was from their father, but after he was arrested for gambling he spent his last days in prison, dying from liver disease.

Owens says she watched as her mother pimped out her sisters one by one; her greed knew no limits. But the author resolved to be nothing like them, clinging to her dream of becoming a hair dresser. Readers follow Owens’ life from adolescence to adulthood and learn how she surpassed the life of prostitution and drugs for which she seemed destined.
Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is available at bookstores nationwide and can be ordered through the publisher at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore or by visiting barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.