From an early age, Angie enjoyed books, music, drama and art – and came to love the smell of diesel fuel from her late father’s beloved John Deere tractor.

She taught blind and visually impaired students for three years at the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, where she experienced a tornado she is happy she survived to tell about.

Married since 1985 to Benny Long, a former high school classmate, she spent a decade living in various parts of the Midwest as an Air Force wife. While they learned the proper technique for wielding a snow shovel, Angie and Benny hope to never have to use one again.

Angie has worked as a department store photographer and sold ladies’ clothing, cosmetics and fine jewelry. She taught French, music and art to elementary and high school students at Greenville’s Fort Dale Academy for three years.

Living less than a mile from her childhood home, she and Benny share their rural homestead with many pets, including two disabled cats, a dog that eats anything, and lots of frogs.

Angie, who has dabbled at writing for years, came to The Greenville Advocate in

January 2000.