Nineteen-year-old Lera Rayborn and twenty-two-old Walter Moore discovered each other accidentally at a cabin in the horseshoe curve of Strong River seven miles from Mississippi Highway 481. Lera was there to lie naked on a mat on the back porch to get tan all over to better her chances to become Miss America. Walter was there to train to be a walk-on quarterback at Alabama. It started when Lera found out that the man she thought was her father was simply a man who, out of kindness, married her mother who got pregnant at eighteen. Her real father, Larry Leland, abandoned her mother and went on to become an outstanding doctor in Mississippi with hopes of running for governor. When Dr. Leland found out Lera had finally yielded to the urging of everybody who knew her and entered beauty pageants, he had to stop her. If she got Miss America, the media coverage on her would ruin him. So he and his mistress, Josephine, devised a plan. Knowing that Walter was going to be at the cabin, they convinced Lera and her mother that Lera stood no chance unless she got tan all over, and that's where the cabin comes in.
As a devout Christian, Lera had never exposed any part of her body except her face and hands, but now she needed to be tan all over. She wanted to be Miss America to honor the man who married her mother. And there Lera and Walter were at the cabin. Neither knew about the camera set in a bluebird box outside the backdoor to film Lera on the mat. But they knew they were human with natural urges. They also knew they had to trust each other, but could they trust themselves?
Art Compere and his wife Doris were born in small towns in Mississippi. Art was born in Florence May 5, 1932; Doris was born in Aberdeen January 20, 1936. Two of their three children were born in Mississippi. Laura was born in Starkville January 15, 1958 where Art was completing a Master of Education at MSU. Richard was born in Oxford February 22, 1962 where Art was completing a Master of Science at Ole Miss. David was born in Ogbomoso, Nigeria August 29, 1966 where his mother and father were serving as Baptist missionaries. After serving as missionaries from July 1965 to July 1972, Art and Doris resigned because of a medical need to stay home. And back in Mississippi, they took teaching jobs until they retired in 1997. Doris passed away August 30, 2019. Art considers himself in good health and divides his time among reading, writing, and cultivation his wife's favorite flowers.
