Names Shakespeare Never Knew
Juanette Merita was the name my mother gave me. Since she was not married, she gave me her last name of Brown, and my sister and I were known as “The Brown Twins.”
A year later, my twin and I were removed from her home and adopted by the Rowleys in Oklahoma. Our new parents named me Ellen Ann, and called me Ann. But they also liked the nickname “Annie Roonie”, and shortened it to “Roonie” most of the time.
Daddy died when I was nine. Mother remarried two years later, and we were adopted by the new father, last name Butler. We Butlers moved to San Diego. People there began to call me “Ellen” and I tried to squelch that by writing ”E. Ann Butler.” Some thought I had just made a mistake with my own name, and was really Ann E. or Anne.
Therefore, in Oklahoma I am Ann Rowley. To my school friends in San Diego I am Ann Butler.
i grew up and married, and was known as Ann Miner for 40 years – in San Diego, Germany, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Victorville, Las Vegas, Apple Valley, in that order. I was very involved in the community when I lived in Victorville and Apple Valley, so lots of folks know me as Ann Miner.
When I came to Apple Valley, which is next door to Victorville, I was single, and was still Ann Miner. Soon, I re-married and joined my husband in some groups of which he was already a member. Those people all know me as Ann Wadsworth. We were married nearly ten years before my husband went hone to Jesus.
When I began to write, I was planning to use Ann Miner Wadsworth as a pen name. Or I thought about using the first letters of all my first names – Juanette, Ann, Merita, Ellen and Roonie. Having discover that the last name of my birth father was McCarson, I even added that. And for a while, I wrote under “Jamer McCarson,” as if I needed another name!
After a time, I married again and am Ann Heimback today. Adding Heimback to Ann Miner Wadsworth is just too cumbersome and leaving out Wadsworth doesn’t seem right. My Heimback husband said that since most people know me as Ann Miner, I should use that , and I often do.
Now, imagine, when I get on the phone to call someone, I have to think of how they know me, and I hesitate ever so slightly before I give my name,. “Hello, this is Ann, uh….”.
My voice mail answers with “This is Ann Miner, Ann Wadsworth and Ann Heinback. Leave a message and one of us will call you back.”
