Lives Entwined SYNOPSIS

This interview is about a single young well-to-do woman and the country girl in her life who shatters societal class by releasing ancestral fears to care for people simply as people. This anecdotal personality profile centers around Doris Baynes, the daughter of a Seminole indian squaw and a West Virginia, Irish descended, mountaineer father. It spans a time period from the depression of the late 1920's to the modern times of the 1980's.

Doris’s adventurous soul sends her soaring through diverse life episodes. At thirteen she joins a carnival troop traveling to Florida to reunite with Ringling Brothers Circus. Fearless and spirited she learns to perform as an aerial trapeze artist. Her bubbly enthusiasm makes her popular with audience and fellow performers alike. Doris not only pulls her own weight but finds the energy to help others as well. This trait aids her throughout life.

Doris marries young, has two children, and sends her husband off to war--though barely out of childhood herself. Her mother offers to take Doris’s school-age son under her

wing. Regretfully, Doris realizes the circus is too confining for a healthy family life so while on tour in Clewiston, she switches careers accepting a position as waitress in the Clewiston Inn. Doris has that perky look that appeals to customers and the energy that has attracted management's attention. Doris learns that she brings warmth and kindness to the public as a waitress so is a real asset to both management and patrons. She becomes one of the most sought after waitresses, receiving the largest tips and the most compliments. Doris fits comfortably into this position of work and learns of her true value to fellow workers and employers as well.

As her daughter nears the teenage years, Doris feels the loss of her child's dependency on her and becomes restless to venture into new more self-serving areas. Her inquisitive nature sends Doris on to new adventures. In a Palm Beach newspaper left at her waitress station, Doris finds an advertisement for a governess position. Why not see how the other half lives, she thinks. Confident that she qualifies after raising her own child into a well-mannered young lady, she applies.

She sways the couple, regular guests of the Inn, with her honesty, pleasant personality, willingness, and energy. Her basic solutions to problems impresses them so much that they hire her as a nanny. Thus, bursts Doris’s simple country theories into the diamond glitz of Palm Beach, meshing the two worlds.

Before Doris Baynes fully understands the impact of this "giant," destiny brings her together with philanthropist, Molly Blossom Lee. Molly has always rebelled against class division. People exist so and they prove worth Mrs. Lee’s interest. What they accomplish or destroy while traveling down life’s road is what matters. With Doris comes a refreshing breath of country simplicity.

Though an odd match, the Lee/Baynes alliance is a weave of friendship and employment that produces a beautiful picture without breaking the thread that paints it. Tempers fly. Doris fires herself as many times as Molly dismisses her. Yet they rejoin quickly, drawn together like ants to sugar.

Then arises the horrific day when Doris returns from vacation to find the sheriff has sealed her from this home. Doris will see Molly no more.

But fate has plans for Doris. Molly's daughter, Meg, divorced her husband shortly after Molly’s death leaving Meg isolated in a rural setting in New York state. A concurrent loss of vision makes Meg unable to drive. Feeling bereft and fearful she now reaches out to Doris Baynes. The Molly/Doris bond stretches out to Molly's offspring. Their lives have entwined once more.