She Let Them Keep Their Secret

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you discover a family secret, but the people who kept it never know you found out? Anita Johnson’s mother, Dixie, grew up on a farm in Iowa. Her parents doted on her, and she carried that love into adulthood. During World War II, Dixie needed a birth certificate to work at a Navy shipyard. Iowa had no record of her birth, so the father who raised her filed an affidavit. Later, Dixie found another birth certificate in a drawer. This one pointed to a family in Wyoming she had known all her life. Dixie eventually told Anita the truth, but she asked her 12-year-old daughter not to tell Gram. For Anita, Gram was the grandmother who taught her to sew, welcomed her for overnight visits and made her feel loved no matter what. Anita had to make sense of the discovery while their visits and family gatherings carried on as usual. In Part 1, Anita tells Corey and Kendall how Dixie learned about her adoption and why she kept that knowledge from the parents who raised her. Anita also shares an account written by one of Dixie’s birth brothers about how Dixie came to live in Iowa. It offers part of the family’s history, though Anita is careful about the questions it leaves unanswered. Anita knew we like to hear these stories from our guests, so she gave us very little before we recorded. Listen to Part 1 and hear how the secret came to belong to her, too. Support the show