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LITERATURE Southern Oregon woman tells story of her life in polygamist colony Comment By Edith Decker Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Edith Decker Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Feb. 14, 2016 at 11:01 PM By Edith Decker Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Feb. 14, 2016 at 11:01 PM » Social News GRANTS PASS — Ruth Wariner grew up in the midst of poverty and tragedy — and in the wake of the murder of her father, the founder of a polygamist Mormon sect. Wariner's new memoir, "The Sound of Gravel," is the story of her childhood at Colonia LeBaron, a Mexican colony where her family practiced polygamy without government interference. She escaped the colony at age 15, in 1987, bringing her siblings with her. She eventually moved to Grants Pass, where she raised her three younger sisters and received the education she'd previously been denied. After a life of moving and uncertainty, here she found stability for her family. "It was a good place to raise kids — stable and safe," she said in a phone interview this week from her current home in Portland. She did home study to earn a GED in Strathmore, Calif., where she and her siblings lived for a time with her maternal grandmother. With her GED and an invitation from her aunt and uncle, Kim and Ron Taylor, she and her three younger sisters moved to Grants Pass. She got a part-time job where she met Grants Pass resident Barbara Tamashiro, who told her about a special program for low-income people to get mortgages. Tamashiro filled out the paperwork for Wariner, and within a few weeks, she had a home of her own on the Williams Highway. "I didn't have an ounce of credit, at all. But I had a job and they took a chance on me." She attended Rogue Community College and then Southern Oregon University to earn a degree in education. Having since moved to Portland, she quit her job as a high school Spanish teacher to complete and market "The Sound of Gravel." The book has been featured in People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and newspapers around the country. It's also being marketed in Britain, where last week she was interviewed on BBC radio. It's also a Costco Book Pick, meaning guaranteed sales. "To be a brand-new author and to get this kind of coverage has been amazing," Wariner said. "It's the story that's grabbing people." And what a story. Her mother's father was convinced to join the offshoot of the traditional Mormon church by the LeBaron brothers, whose father had founded it. Eventually, though, her grandparents and all but one of their daughters left the church. Only Wariner's mother, Kathy, remained. Kathy was married to Joel LeBaron, who inherited leadership of the sect. She was his fifth wife and he was 25 years her senior when she married him at 17. "I was my mother's fourth child and my father's 39th," Wariner wrote in the first chapter. When she was 3 months old, a schism between Joel and his brother, Ervil, who had begun his own church, boiled into violence. Ervil ordered Joel, and later a list of other rivals, killed by his followers. Soon after Joel LeBaron's murder, Kathy needed to remarry. Times were extremely hard, and single women with children couldn't make it on their own for long. She was courted by one of Joel's apostles, Lane, a man who showed a kind face to the world, but was controlling, abusive and a pedophile behind closed doors. He installed the family in a half-finished house with no running water, electricity, phone and, often, little food. Writing the book has been healing for her and for her family, she said, noting that she asked all her siblings to read the book before she put it out to a publisher. "I was very concerned and wanted to make sure that I was respectful because I was telling the shared family story," she said. Her brother, Luke, was taken in by the Taylors. He lives and works in Grants Pass and is involved with Special Olympics. He is one of three of her mother's children who were developmentally disabled. Her oldest sister is in care for severe autism, and her sister Meri died as an infant. Her oldest brother, Matt, eventually returned to the colony and still lives there. "He has 14 kids," Wariner said. "It's a much more modern community now. And it's harder to live polygamy; that's what they say." She's returned three times since her escape. "Every time I came back emotionally exhausted," she said. "You get separated from that and you realize, especially after college and being educated … seeing women who didn't really make that choice and still feeling like they had to have so many kids and see the man served first, those things were really hard." With the success of "The Sound of Gravel," Wariner is looking to a new project. The second part of her story — of how she recovered in Grants Pass with years of therapy and education — seems like a good place to start. "Sticking with college and deciding to keep my family together, those were all huge decisions in my life that I made at a really young age." By Edith Decker Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Edith Decker Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Feb. 14, 2016 at 11:01 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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