Dream Bigger in 2026 with Icons & Trailblazers

This is Women Road Warriors with Shelly Johnson and Cassie Ticcaro from the corporate office to the cab of a truck. They're here to inspire and empower women in all professions. So gear down, sit back and enjoy. Welcome. We're an award-winning show dedicated to empowering women in every profession through inspiring stories and expert insights. No topics off limits on our show. We power women on the road to success with expert and celebrity interviews and information you need. I'm Shelly. And I'm Cassie. The new year is always a time of celebration, reflection and anticipation of new beginnings. People have hopes and dreams as the new year unfolds. We thought, what better way to ring in the new year than to feature three of our entertaining and inspirational guest celebrities who we interviewed. We've talked with some incredible guests so the decision wasn't easy. We decided to feature segments of our interviews with the country music trio, Chapel Heart, who are absolute trailblazers in the country music scene. And they teach us how to turn nose into motivation. We also feature Hollywood legend, Ruta Lee, whose career has spanned over seven decades as she start alongside icons like Frank Sinatra, Jean Kelly and Clint Eastwood. Another trailblazer, she was able to get her grandmother out of the Soviet Union during the Cold War by calling the Soviet Premier at the time. And finally, we share our interview with Jean Peelan, who's had at least six careers. Now in her 80s, she's the author of Feisty. She dreamed of being the first New Jersey cowboy, but instead became a well-known federal civil rights attorney. You don't want to miss it. It's our happy new year tribute to you, our listeners. So sit back, relax, indulge in your favorite beverage and enjoy. Whatever you do, don't stop dreaming. Don't stop doing the things that you know that you can do. These are some of the mottoes of the country music trio, Chapel Heart. They're living proof that in spite of the odds or barriers, you can walk into Nashville and become a country music sensation. This terrific African-American female trio is breaking barriers and making headlines on the country music scene. They've appeared on America's Got Talent, The Today Show, Taste of Country, at the Grand Old Opry, and they've been featured in Rolling Stone magazine just to name a few. The Chapel Heart trio are Danica and Devin Hart and Tree Swindle. They're independent artists who have created their own roadmap by turning nose into motivation. They embody diversity as they inspire people with their music. We love to feature trailblazers, and these ladies are definitely that. They wowed Simon Cowell on America's Got Talent, and that is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. Two of their hits include You Can Have Him, Jolene, and This Girl Likes Fords. We have Danica, Devin, and Tree with us today, and we're excited. Welcome, ladies. Thank you for being on the show. Hello. Hi. We are surely excited to be here. Thank you all so much for having us. And look, we apologize in advance for whatever may fly out of our mouth, but I'll tell you what, we're over-sharers most of the time, so you at least have it, the down-on truth. We love it. We love spontaneity. You know, I love how you're breaking barriers, and I love your music. You're incredibly talented. Your harmonies and musical skills are impeccable, and people just love you. Have you always performed together? I see you became an official trio in what, 2018? Yeah. Yes, we, Chapel Heart was official. And this is Tree, by the way. Hi, Tree. Hey. Chapel Heart officially formed in 2018, but we started out in New Orleans, and we were just a cover band. It started out with Danica, but it didn't take long for us to realize we were missing that third piece of the puzzle. So whenever Dev came along, that was blood like a ground, the end of 17, I don't know, is it 18? Okay. In 2018. And so we kind of, like, once we had all the pieces to the puzzle together, we were like, we have to start playing the music that really resonates with us and follow our own hearts. And so, you know, we took the dive into original music, and Chapel Heart was born. You know, it's so cool. You guys are in the same family. Danica and Devon are sisters, and Tree, you're their cousin, right? Right. So as children, did you kind of harmonize? I mean, how did you know that you could work together like that? I think this is Danica. And I think the beauty of that is that, so if the people are always like, oh my God, it's so amazing that y'all are family band, but I think maybe even more amazing is that our grandparents had 17 children and there's 108 grandkids. And so, I always say, good, good. I always say, when you were born into the world, when they slapped you on the butt, whatever key you cried in, they just put you in a section in the choir, the kids' choir. At any given time, we had a youth choir with all of us and our cousins, anywhere from 25 to 50 to 60 kids at one time in this little choir. And that's where it really all began for us. And we have a family that large. Everything, music was always surrounded. Everything was surrounded around music. As Tree said, we didn't even know we grew up in a musical until when you grew up and thought about it, we were like, oh my God. Everything was always music. And I think that's where our first love for music came from. Well, you know, when you start that young too and you're singing with other people, you're not intimidated to do it. And what a great training group. I would think that like, kind of when we started out singing in New Orleans, just Tree and I, we started on the streets. And kind of once we got our first couple of inside gigs, people would come and like watch the whole show from front to back. And in my mind, I would always just be so mind blown that people would say and watch because for us, it was just the two of us kind of being silly and singing and singing two part harmony, but people were just like blown away. I was like, well, this is weird. Like, that gives maybe the beauty of growing up, you know, surrounded by that type of like that type of love for music. That is so cool. The variety of music that you were exposed to and the fact that you decided to just basically bring your roots to the public and. I love it. You are trailblazers. You're not afraid of the barriers. That's wonderful. And people love you for this. I mean, you are a wonderful example for women, African American women, anybody who's thinking about going into country music because that's got to be a bit daunting. Now, did you always sing country music growing up or was it a little bit of gospel? I mean, what types of music? This is Tree and well, we grew up singing in the church. So gospel definitely played a big part. We grew up in South Mississippi and popular bill Mississippi to be exact. And country music is kind of just everywhere. And honestly, it's the only kind of music that we could really like relate to because, you know, you might have songs about fancy cars and all the things, but, you know, growing up in South Mississippi, that really wasn't reality. But if you sing a song about riding an old truck through a field and playing outside barefoot with your cousins, like that really hit home for us. Right. I think that I feel like we were in a special, a special place, musically, because they had a CMT put on a breaking, breaking glass ceilings event. And they honored Tanya Tucker and Patty LaBelle. And I was like, it's kind of like growing up in our houses. Our, all of our aunties would listen to like blues and Patty LaBelle and all the things our grandpa, our grandpa listen to. He and his friends always listen to blues and tree when she was younger, like a mud ball band. So it was all, it was kind of rock and fuse. So to say that we grew up on everything is not an understatement. That makes you a more well rounded musician. Question. What is a mud dog band? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Mud Bog. Oh, Mud Bog. Okay. You used to have like one of the biggest mud bogs like in South Mississippi. But, but for those who don't know what a mud ball is, it's imagine about the length of about a football field and a half, but that football field is filled with about five to 10 feet of mud. And people come from all over with giant trucks to race across and like my work. You'd have you be able to ace this, Kathy. If they've got a big grand prize, we're, we're nominating Kathy to come on our behalf. Oh man. Look at that. I'm just real, I mean, yes, please. We might have to hurry up and become international superstars so we can sponsor Kathy. Cause I feel like she would let a lot of people guys to shave. And Kathy, you could bring your big truck and they'll all go, whoa, that's a truck. Oh my God. Mud Boggin. It's pretty cool. And so is your music. The variety of music that you were exposed to. What inspired you to say, you know, we're going to take this to the next level. I think we just kind of, this is Dev. I think he just kind of reached that place where it was like, as when we were the cover band, it was like, okay, well, if we're ever going to, you know, be taken serious, we felt like we wanted to be taken serious. We'd have to start writing our own music and kind of running it that way. And so we all kind of sat down and decided that we wanted to kind of go that round. And we just, I think that was kind of where it started, the base and started. And that's this tree. And I get, I'll kind of like continue that a little bit because I kind of feel like once we did make the jump and start writing our original music, kind of like dawned on us. Like you can sing a great cover that someone's heard a million times, but whenever you put your own experience in your own story, when you put those words to paper, put those words to a song, and you see the way that, what we see the way that our own personal experience is kind of like translated to these people hearing these songs. It's kind of like a responsibility at that time to go ahead and like extend that musical saga. And I think for us, I think that we just kept kind of writing down, like, it was funny. It kind of started as, well, what if we played this place? What if we played this place? What if we went on tour? What if we did this? And we started doing those things and we started ticking those off the list and we kept writing down all the list. And then it was, well, what if we ever, like, can you imagine if we would have went to the Grand Ole Opry? Can you imagine that? And then, or the rhyming? And next thing you know, we're playing these places and so we always, a lot of times we'll be at our show and we dedicate certain songs to the dreamers because I'm like, you know, I think that's a big message for us is whatever you do, don't stop dreaming. Don't stop believing that you can do the things that you know that you can do. Sometimes you just need somebody to say, look, you got this and you got, you need to look at somebody and say, oh man, if they can do it, I can do it. What do you say to the ladies out there who might want to go into country music or even they want to be inspired by life? What kind of message would you give people so that when they're discouraged, hey, you know, you still can do this? Well, this is, I feel, this is true and I feel like it's another one of those like a three-part answers because like, like you say, this is not by any stretch of the imagination an easy, an easy thing to pursue. But the one thing that I would have to say is just be yourself. It might not make sense to anybody else in the world, but if you are, if you're true to who you are, your people will come out of the woodworks. Now they might be a little, a little crazy like we are, but I mean, as long as you're you, that's, that's really all you can do. Be true to yourselves. That's it. I say find your tribe. Find the people who push you to be the best that you can be, that they don't let you slack. They don't let you just be mediocre. Find the people who, but also that they encourage you when they like find the right people, but also be careful what you're putting in you. A lot of times I feel like people just, yeah, are, are you listening at, you know, nonsense music all the time? Sometimes you've got to put on those motivational speakers and when they, they, you got to hear them say, if you're not getting up and you're not putting this many hours into your crap and what you do, then you're just being lazy. And sometimes that's up with harsh, but sometimes it's the kick in the butt that you need. And so, um, so I definitely say find the, find your tribe and, um, and just, you know, just find the, and, and be careful what you're putting into you. Like watch inspirational and motivational things. And it usually kind of, I feel like for me, kind of kicks you in the butt a little bit and you go, okay, let's do it. This is Demmon. And I would just say go after the things that make you happy and the things that are ultimately going to make you happy in the long run because life is short and life is hard. So you might as well do the things that kind of set your, that sets you on fire and get you going. You ladies are exactly what the doctor ordered. And yet I totally agree with what you're saying here. This is, this is very inspiring. This has been an honor featuring you guys. Thank you so much. You can find Chapel Hearts music on chapelheart.com. Stay tuned for more of women road warriors coming up. We're proud of and join us on social media. Learn more at truckingmuseamerica.com. Welcome back to women road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Takarov. If you're enjoying this informative episode of women road warriors, I wanted to mention Kathy and I explore all kinds of topics that will power you on the road to success. We feature a lot of expert interviews. Plus we feature celebrities and women who've been trailblazers. Please check out our podcast at womenroadwarriors.com and click on our episodes page. We're also available wherever you listen to podcasts. Check us out and bookmark our podcast. Also don't forget to follow us on social media and tell others about us. We want to help as many women as possible. The second interview in our holiday celebrity edition is with Hollywood legend and icon, Ruda Lee. She's been a trailblazer as an actress, a philanthropist and glam girl who knows what she wants and she gets it. She's also a Spitfire. She single-handedly got her grandmother out of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and into the United States by personally contacting the then Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev. She's the author of a Hollywood memoir called, Consider Your Ass Kissed. Enjoy the interview. Today we have a Hollywood legend and icon with us who's had quite the career that's spanned decades in film, television and theater. Ruda Lee got her start in 1953 before she even had an agent by appearing on the George Burns and Gracie Allen show. After that she landed an agent who got her a job on the Roy Rogers show. She's worked with so many Hollywood greats. In addition to iconic films, Lee's appeared in guest-starring roles on major TV shows like Gunsmoke, The Love Boat, Threes Company, Roseanne. Murder, she wrote, even Scooby-Doo. She's worked with remarkable leading men including Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, James Garner, Johnny Carson, Fred Astaire, Robin Williams, Frank Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack. And she's been friends with Hollywood greats like Debbie Reynolds, Rona Barrett, Phyllis Diller, Lucille Ball and Sally Field. Ruda has a book of memoirs out which we're eager to talk about. It's called, Consider Your Ass Kissed. I love that title by the way. It's a treasure trove of Hollywood history. Ruda Lee is truly a Hollywood legend and glam girl and we're very honored to have her on the show with us. Welcome Ruda. Hi Kathy, would you girls do my eulogy please? Because that was absolutely gorgeous. Oh well thank you. Wow, you just gave my whole life history God bless you. That is so nice. I'm so happy to be with you adorable tomatoes. Well thank you Ruda. Thank you. You had quite the career. What inspired you to get into Hollywood? Well I think what inspired me was that I came out of my mother's womb singing and dancing. I'm not quite sure. I found which is a Lithuanian born and bred and married lady who came from a teeny tiny little farm where they were very very rich if they had a cow, you know. And carried her shoes to church all the time because they had to be passed down to the next girl and the next generation. And she knew nothing about show business but she listened to my kindergarten teacher who said to her, Mary you have got to do something with this girl. She's different from the other children in my classes here in the kindergarten. Give her music lessons and some dancing lessons or something because she is the stand out. And my mother took her seriously and gave me the lessons. I hated practice but love performing, you know. And so eventually because she was so sure that I was Lithuanian's answer to Shirley Temple, she knew a little bit about movies, nothing about theater. And it planned on getting me somehow to where movies were made. And she corresponded with a marvelous priest who had started the Lithuanian Catholic Church here in Los Angeles. And he invited them to come out and spend a little time at his tiny church slash rectory flash residence. And he was just wonderful. And thanks to him, my folks fell madly in love with Southern California. We were up to our fannies and snow in Montreal and here they were with flowers blooming and palm trees waving and birds singing and bees buzzing and it was all just too wonderful. And eventually they got their papers to come to the United States which was kind of miraculous because after the war, all the visas and permits to come into the US were given to displaced persons all over Europe that were of Lithuanian descent. But God listened to my mother's prayers and we got papers to come and that's how I got started in Hollywood. And I was, you know, all of 11 years old I guess when we made the move. But what a fortuitous move my mom saw to it that we made. Absolutely. They were the kind of people that supported my efforts all the way through and the nice part is girls that they both lived long enough, especially by mom because she lived long past my dad, that they both got to see me arrive at some modicum of success in the business and be able to make a living at what I enjoyed doing which is kind of a great blessing. I think if any of us have jobs doing what we love doing, it's really great. Well, you've had such a stellar career and what a wonderful tribute to your parents who were so fortuitous in helping you and recognizing and listening to your kindergarten teacher. Yes, I'm so grateful. I mean, I owe my whole career to that lady. And then I owe my whole career to the priest that invited them out and thought it was a great idea, you know. Absolutely. If I stop and think about it, my first steps in show business were usually at the church hall, you know, where there was either I sang in the little children's choir, or I did some sort of dancing and carrying on as a child. And then other Lithuanian communities heard about me and they would have me come to Boston or New York and perform in whatever Lithuanian hall or church hall there was. So they were my first steps. And they were always something to do with the Almighty, which is kind of an interesting thing. So I'm still connected and say, thank God, very good thing that came my way, you know. Well, divine guidance is always, always helpful. Oh, yes, yes, yes. If only we can learn to listen to the tinkle of the bells or the sighing of the wind or whatever that tells us what the answer is. Absolutely. I find it amazing that you appeared on the George Burns and Gracie Ellen show and you didn't have an agent yet? That's really an accomplishment. I think I may tell you how that happened. I was working all the way through high school. I went to Hollywood High. I had been in Catholic schools all of my life and it was like getting out of jail to go to Hollywood High. It was excellent, wonderful. And a great theater arts department and they really stressed it and a great theater in which to work at the venue that is often used for outside productions. And while I was in high school, it's a wonder that I got out of high school because I was working at night at the gallery stage and I was going to school at the same time. And one of the producers there also worked on the Burns and Ellen show as an associate producer and he suggested me for a role and I got it. And that was kind of wonderful. And that's what got me my screen actors Guild Card. Almost excellent. Well, it's essential, you know. Absolutely. You wouldn't really even be considered without that for some of the major roles. The Burns and Ellen people were very, very dear to me and Mr. Burns after Gracie had already died, while she was still alive, I would get included every once in a while. Not, not often. I don't mean it was a daily or monthly procedure, but maybe once or twice a year I'd get invited by them to their home if they were having a cocktail bash or something in their beauty. Backyard on Maple Street in Beverly Hills. And I just thought that was so splendid to be included with these sophisticated Hollywood people, you know, this newbie here. And that's kind of a lovely thing that has happened in many cases. The lovely woman, Gail Patrick, who was the producer of the Perry Mason show. Now, Gail Patrick was a big star in movies, you know, in the 30s and the 40s and into the 50s. And to all of a sudden have her hire me, not just once, but like six times, I think I did a lot of episodes of the Perry Mason. Wow. I got to play all sorts of different characters. Sometimes I was the goody two shoes with the heart of gold, you know. I was the hooker with the heart of golden teeth to match. Sometimes I was, you know, the murderous. And it was such a lovely training ground for me, just great. And Gail Patrick would include me in her cocktail and dinner parties occasionally. And I just never forgot how splendid that was for somebody just beginning in the business. You had to have been star struck initially. I know I would have been. Yeah, you know, you're star struck except you're so young and stupid that you're going to happen all the time, you know, that it's going to be an ongoing thing. So, you know, so when I was working with Frank Sinatra, I got used to it and thought, oh yeah, this happens all the time, you know. Well, you know, Ruda, you've been such a trailblazer. Not only in Hollywood, but you've been an advocate and you're an empowering person. You follow through on your beliefs. You're setting an example and being a women's empowerment talk show. That's one of the reasons we're featuring you. Now, the heart of empowering, I think, played an effect when I, I don't know if you've read this, I dedicate one chapter to it in the book. And that is getting my grandmother out of Siberia, out of communist Lupinia. Please tell us that story because I saw that. I was so impressed. You got ahold of Cruz Jeff. There, that running a different kind of system and doing the unorthodox. And I had to be slightly sloshed to do it, but I did it, you know. I had been trying for years and years and years to get my grandmother first out of Siberia. My grandfather's legs were frozen on the cattle car that they were being deported on. So my grandparents, you know, were little farm folk who didn't have a pot to pee in and yet were deported when they were, I assume, trying to repatriate all those Baltic countries and take away the national pride and repatriate the countries with Russians or Chinese or whatever, you know, they were of the communists bent. And, and I had been trying for years to get her out when we found her through the Red Cross. I mean, I was just a little girl when my mother found her after the war. And then eventually when we moved to California and I became an American citizen, I tried every which way I knew how to get her. And the original way was to send a visov, which a visov is a letter in English, of course, Lithuanian and in Russian that is an invitation to grandmama saying, dear grandmother, you know, I know your health is bad. You're very old. I would want you to come and live in California where the climate is better for you. You will not be a burden to your family or the states or anybody. I will assume full responsibility. And then you have to have this thing notarized, these three pages. The notary seal now has to be approved by the city seal, the Los Angeles City Seal. Now you've got to send this whole package to Sacramento and get the state seal. Then the whole thing goes to the State Department and you get the State Department seal on it. You now have a pound of letters that was three pages and you send that to the Soviet Union. They take it to the local commissar who looked at it as impressed by everything and then goes, and forget it. You have to start all over again six months later because they aspire. I get that for 12 years. 12 years? Wow. And she was eventually allowed back from Siberia to Lithuania. You could stay in Siberia in whatever you built or you could go back to where your home was. Well, of course, her home has now been divvied up and given away to the local Russian commissar. And so she wound up living in a little town on the Baltic Sea near Kleipeda with one of my aunts. And we were getting a letter from her thanking us for everything that we had sent to them all through the years that helped sustain them. At the time you could send 40 pounds. It could be a pound of coffee, a pound of sugar, a pound of tea, a pound of lard, you know, and some clothes. And things. And my mother used to roll up $5 bills, $10 bills, $100 bills and tiny, tiny, tiny things and throw them into the seams of clothes. Hopefully later saying, you know, the shoulder pads, they're not fashionable in Russia. Take them out, you know, that sort of thing. And maybe they survived. And so we were getting a letter that she was dying. I got very upset because it was my one remaining grandparent that I'd worked so hard. My mother was in a spate of tears. And so I went out with friends that night. The more wine they poured, the more logical it became that I should do something extraordinary. And pick up the damn phone and call Khrushchev. And I did. I placed a call at something like two in the morning, which would be, you know, business hours in Moscow. And asked to thank God in those days, ladies, you could make person to person call. Right. And person to person meant that you paid twice as much for the call when you got it. But you didn't pay unless you got your party. And so I made person to person call to Nikita Khrushchev, the Kremlin, Moscow, USSR. And the American operator said, how do you spell Khrushchev? Oh, geez. The Khrushchev were, you know, but anyway, it was many, many back and forths. With the Russian operator, Mr. Khrushchev not available. Mr. Khrushchev, no speak. You know, that whole kind of thing. Maybe five, six times back and forth. In the meantime, I was calling the Russian embassy in Washington. And I spoke with everybody from the dishwasher to the upstairs maid. And it was. No. No. No. No. Finally the operator. And by now I'm beginning to sober up and getting a little head. And the operator comes back and says, Mr. Khrushchev, no speak English. You speak it interpretive. Mr. Khrushchev. And I said, okay, yeah, because I remembered that the interpreter that traveled with him when he was here banging his shoe, he, the interpreter was great because my father would laugh at what Khrushchev said. He was Russian, fluent in Russian and they Khrushchev didn't say that. And he made it palatable to our, you know, ears. And though I said, okay, I'll speak with him. All about you here in the Soviet Union. We see your movies. What can I do for you? And I explained that I wanted to come to the Soviet Union. I wanted to come to Lithuania where nobody could go unless they were a very high party official. And not only did I want to come, I wanted to bring my mother and father who the State Department had warned me, don't take your parents because they could be detained as Soviet citizens because they were born there. And I thought God's not going to be that cruel. So he said, well, why don't you speak to your congressman about it? Well, I was testy and I said, what the hell does my congressman have to do with my traveling in your country? This is not a matter of politics. This is not political. This is a matter of the heart. I don't even know if my grandmother is alive or dead. Either I will come to her grave side or I'll come to her bedside. I hope it's the latter. And amazingly enough, he said, present yourself again to the Soviet Embassy in Washington. I thought, oh, hell, I'm going to get the run around again. This time the hotlines obviously were flashing between Moscow and Washington and the Soviet Embassy. And I was immediately connected when I called to the First Secretary, a major position in any embassy. And the First Secretary was named Zen Kavichus and a Lithuanian. And of course I'm fairly fluent in Lithuanian. And long story, which I'm trying to make sure. Within 48 hours, my papers were signed, sealed, delivered, and my mother and father and I were on a Pan Am flight to Moscow and then doubling back to Lithuania where they caught up with their family. And we found my grandmother in a hospital there. She had been miraculously moved. And why were they so good to me in the Soviet Union? Because, and I owe it all to the press, James Bacon was the APU. He was the AP Wire Service Hollywood Reporter. And he did a story about Hollywood starlet goes to Soviet Union to rescue grandmother, Siberia, blah, blah, blah. And this made headlines all around the world. Well, of course the Soviets were going to be good to me. The eyes of the world were staring at them. And so I, of course, had no idea that this was going on because I was already on a plane and then Communicado, you know. And, you know, this is the dear Lord and divine intervention working in wonderful and beautiful ways. But the point is for the ladies that are listening because we are movers and shakers, ladies, do the unexpected. Do the unwarranted. Do whatever it takes. Just do it. Amen to the, amen to that. Yes. If you sit back and say, gee, that really hasn't been done or that wouldn't be very polite or it would seem pushy or whatever. So frigging what? Do it. I love you. I love you. Ruta, you are a serious trailblazer. To hear more of Ruta's great inspirations and stories, check out her book, Consider Your Ass Kissed on Amazon.com. Also, don't forget to check out her website at rudalee.com. Stay tuned for more of Women Road Warriors coming up. Industry movement, trucking moves America forward is telling the story of the industry. Our safety champions, the women of trucking, independent contractors, the next generation of truckers and more. Help us promote the best of our industry. Share your story and what you love about trucking. Share images of a moment you're proud of. And join us on social media. Learn more at truckingmovesamerica.com. Welcome back to Women Road Warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Takarov. Next up is Jean Peelan, the author of Feisty, A Memoir in Little Pieces. Jean is a true woman trailblazer who's going to teach you the importance of being feisty. It's definitely a good word to know as we enter this new year. Jean has indeed been feisty. She wanted to be the first New Jersey cowboy at the age of five. She's had six unconventional careers when women weren't supposed to. These include being a federal civil rights attorney, chief of staff for U.S. broadcasting, QVC model, politician and author. A staunch feminist early, Jean hosted Gloria Steinem in Alabama. Tune into this next segment to hear some of her incredible story. Everyone needs a champion and inspiration in their lives, especially women. Jean Peelan is one of these people. She walks the walk. She's also a woman who's had six careers. Jean is moved mountains as a mother, civil rights attorney, former chief of staff for U.S. broadcasting, a model on QVC shopping channel, and she was shortlisted as a finalist for the show Survivor. She was also a politician and she's now an author. She teaches women it's never too late to accomplish their dreams and she's still crushing it in her 80s. She inspires women of all ages with her group Old Women Who Write. Her autobiography Fiesty was released and we've invited her back on the show to talk about it. Fiesty's the story of a woman with attitude, told in short reflections that capture a life of awakening activism. From Jean's exploits as a five-year-old New Jersey cowboy to hosting Gloria Steinem in Alabama to an awkward drink with a young Clarence Thomas. Jean Peelan shares her civil rights journey and the most vulnerable moments in her life. This book is funny and sad, deep and wide. Fiesty shines a light on what's possible when a woman rejects the role she's expected to fulfill and finds her own path. Jean's an amazing lady and I must say she sports a superwoman costume very well. That's on the cover of her book with an F for Fiesty. Welcome Jean, thank you for being with us. Thank you, I've been wondering how you guys were doing. I so enjoyed the first interview we had together. I'm happy to be here and happy the book is done and it's out in the world. That's always a sense of accomplishment. You got it, you got it. This has been sort of amazing. You know, I started Fiesty during the pandemic, actually because I was bored out of my mind. Because I live in a tiny house in a tiny house village in western North Carolina. And the only thing there was to do here before the pandemic was Tuesday night taco trivia. And so I was already bored. So when the pandemic hit, oh my gosh, I didn't know what to do because I couldn't even do taco trivia anymore. So I decided to write. And you know, three years later, it's really out there. It's on Amazon. It is in the hands of all my friends and family and thousands of other people out there already. I'm amazed. I'm amazed. Oh, I'm not. Your story is so incredible and you're such an incredible lady. And I love the title Fiesty. Yeah, that just came from sort of who I am. This book, Fiesty, has 65 chapters which sounds like, oh my God, more at peace. However, each chapter is so short, it's a page or a page and a half. Somebody can read it, you know, when they're going to bed at night or whenever, and they can read a whole chapter and feel real good about it and it's only been a page. Did you want me to read it all while we're talking here? You can? How about you give us a summary of what it's all about? How about we start out with when you wanted to be a five-year-old New Jersey cowboy? We're all started. I love that. What is a five-year-old New Jersey cowboy? Well, I will tell you and I will even read it to you. The idea of Fiesty really, or sort of the underlying thought of the whole book, was the world wanted me to nest. I wanted to fly and then it underlines my life, really. So, okay, let me read you because I think you'll enjoy it. What I wanted, this is called 1949, age eight, because this book goes through my life from age five to age 82 now. So what I wanted, there aren't any cowboys in New Jersey. Even so, every night I slide out of bed quietly so as not to wake my sister. I put on the white half mask I got for Halloween and stand at the end of my bed facing the closet where the bad guys live. I let my hands drift over my pretend six guns ready to shoot. It's a face down. I walk slowly, leather holsters slung around my hips, down the dusty street toward the bad guy. You sure you want to do this, partner? I ask. My voice soft but powerful. He cowers at the sight of me and my guns. I fast draw my guns. The bad guy surrenders, hands up. I perform this theater over and over, never tiring of the look of surprise on the bad guy's faces and the feeling of power flowing through me. I learned everything I know about being a hero cowboy from the four o'clock western. Good guy line. Come on cowboy, you know that's not the right thing to do. Bad guy line. We'll ambush them in the canyon. Cowboys never seem afraid and never seem to doubt the outcome, while the bad guys are always wrong about it. The good guys in the movies never draw first. They wait for the bad guy to make the first move then beat him to the draw. I'm not sure it's a great idea to wait for the bad guy to draw first. I would want the advantage. I think I can draw first and still be a good guy. I could be the first New Jersey cowboy. I love it, it's great. Oh my goodness. So every chapter in Feisty, it goes through my whole life. As I said, I'm age five to age 82, but every chapter is just a moment in time. It's just presented. It's a conversation with my mother, or an experience which was not good with the school janitor, or having a drink with my then boss, Clarence Thomas, or all the way through my life, every, I just picked moments that have stayed in my mind for years and years. And sometimes I don't even know why. I mean, did you ever have memories that stay in your mind? And you don't know quite why. Why are they so present, even when they didn't seem to mean a whole lot at the time? You know what I mean? Yeah. That's what I did with Feisty. I mean, I talked about births, deaths, you know, marriages, divorces, lovers, whatever. But I also started writing down those small memories because my thought was if they're in the state in my brain for all these years, they have to have some meaning. They have to have raised some emotion in me. And I started, that's what I really loved about writing Feisty. I got to look at all those old little memories and write them down and understand why they mattered. That's a rare opportunity. It really is. It's kind of cathartic, isn't it? Oh, my gosh. Something like that. It's the cheapest therapy in the world. Write your life. You know, write your life. Yeah. Because it is so therapeutic. I had always wondered. I don't know if you all wonder. I think you all are too young to wonder this much about what my life really had been about. You know, what was it? It seemed like, to me, it was sort of a series of random events that just popped up. And some I said, okay. And some I said, no. But I never knew really what it was about. And because I didn't know, I didn't know if I had lived a good life or if I had a bad life or what it was. And writing about my life has made such a difference for me. I'm now very comfortable that my life had meaning. It's had purpose. It had a storyline, a through line. I can't tell you the joy that I've had from writing it. And that's even before it got published. So, you know. Your life has been so amazing with all of the different changes you went through. And you, in spite of it all, hung on to who you are. You didn't want to conform. You wanted to be Jean. You didn't want to be this person that everybody said you had to be. That's absolutely correct. That's so inspirational for so many people because I think we all get stuck into this cubby hole, don't we? Here, you sit here and you stay there. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I absolutely think that. Yeah. And you know, lest you and your listeners think that everything in here is serious and, you know, I did become a civil rights lawyer at age 35, was 38 before I got out of law school with two kids. But lest you think that everything was serious and I'm just a driven person for public service. Let me read you a little chapter called Don't Fence Me Out. Okay. It was in 1980 and I was 39 years old. And I had moved from Alabama and law school to Washington, D.C. to the big leagues. Okay. Don't fence me out. I have one leg over the top of the tall fencing when the searchlight hits me. The D.C. Metro police car pulls further into the alley and stops. Freeze! There's not a single excuse I can make for where I am and what I'm doing. The bar manager's parting words as he closed the bar tonight, sure, come on over to my place anytime, meant to me, come on over tonight. I didn't know about any security fence, but between me and Johnny Walker Red, I wasn't going to let that stop me. I freeze as ordered, working to keep my balance on top of the fence. Oh God, I can picture the headline in the Washington Post. Federal attorney arrested, breaking into local bar manager's house. I am hot for the bar manager. I look at him and see bad boy romance. He's everything I should not want. A high school dropout, Vietnam Marine, a macho man, a bar manager. He's the direct opposite of what the world would have me look for, a successful lawyer or businessman. But I see tall, tough, smart, funny, rule breaker and very, very sexy. I hear laughter, the cops are laughing. He must be really good at it, one snickers from within the car. I know the voice. It's one of the many cops that hang out at his bar. They know him and they know me. The bar manager's back door opens. He comes out, baseball bat held as weapon. What the hell, he says. Oh, it's just one of your friends come to see ya, yells the cop. The bar manager grabs my hand to help me over. Welcome, he says. That's it. That's hilarious. That's it. So yes, I was doing civil rights work during the day. I was working on policies to ensure that women, female athletes, got equal opportunity in schools and colleges all over the country. I was working to be sure that limited English proficient children got educated, that children with disabilities got educated. On all of those issues, but in my spare time, I was having a good time. You know, that's kind of key, isn't it? We forget how to have a good time along with everything that we're doing. Yes, yes. I think we do. I think we do. And I think we've got to allow ourselves, you know, to say, right now I'm going to have a really good time. You know, right now I am. Now later in my life and later in the book I talk about, Johnny Walker Redd got out of hand. And I had to take some serious steps about that. But the thing is, was feisty, a memoir in little pieces. It's all in here. I hide nothing. I don't hide the wonderful times and I don't hide the really hard times. They're all here, page by page. It's basically my life on a plate. So I think of this book. Sure. You know, anybody who's read it knows more about me than my mother ever knew, for sure. You know? Gene Peelan inspires women and lets them know it's never too late to follow their dreams and aspirations. She's living proof for sure and a great inspiration for the new year. To read more about Gene and her adventures, you can purchase her book Feisty on Amazon.com or check out our website at OldWomenWhoWrite.com. Stay tuned for more of Women Road Warriors coming up. Join us on social media. Learn more at truckingmovesamerica.com. Welcome back to Women Road Warriors with Shelley Johnson and Kathy Takarov. One thing the inspirational ladies we featured in this holiday special share is the desire to dream and succeed and try the unexpected, no matter what. Chaplain Hart, Rudal Lee and Gene Peelan have all danced to their own tune in spite of what they were told and haven't been afraid to try. That's a resolution we can all live by. Lucille Ball once said, I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done. So let's take 2026 on and let's do it. Kathy and I both wish you a happy and prosperous 2026. Always remember to aspire higher and dream big in everything you do. You can do it. We hope you've enjoyed this latest episode and if you want to hear more episodes of Women Road Warriors or learn more about our show, be sure to check out womenroadwarriors.com and please follow us on social media and please follow us wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Women Road Warriors with Shelley Johnson and Kathy Takaro. If you want to be a guest on the show or have a topic or feedback, email us at sjohnsonatwomenroadwarriors.com.