Local Color, based on the author's personal experience of growing up in a rural waterman and farm community in the 1950's describes an undeveloped area where happy children thrived on the enjoyment of freedom and simplistic living. She talks about the people, their personalities, contributions and the influences that set this community apart from city living or other rural areas. The people described in this book are hard-working generations of Virginians that represent a whole society---not just a particular class. The community survived and depended on each individual. Everyone had a role in survival. People were courteous. People were supportive. People were generous. Yet, it was a community of separatism. Black people lived within the confines society imposed.
About the Author: Gwen Keane was born and raised in the Northern Neck of Virginia. She earned a BA in Business Administration from Trinity University, in Washington D.C. and graduated cum laude from Georgetown University, in Washington D.C. where she received her Masters' Degree in Public Administration. Most of Gwen's thirty-four years of federal career was spent as a civilian employee with the U.S. Navy, with ten years as the Deputy Inspector General for the Naval Sea Systems Command. She received two Department of Navy Superior Civilian Service Awards, the Navy Civilian Meritorious Award and the Department of Defense Hammer Award, for her outstanding accomplishments in performance management. She served as a Baldridge Examiner with the Department of Commerce for four years and as an examiner for the Department of Army Quality Awards Program, and the Department of Veteran Affairs Quality Awards Program. Gwen is the author of the non-fiction book Swan Wait, a personal journey with Mute Swans. She and her husband provided all of the photography that appears in the book. At 18 she left home to attend business school. She became one of the first female managers at the Norfolk Shipyard Yard in Portsmouth Virginia. She established the Navy's first office automation program, and served two years as a director for an international technology organization. Later she moved to Alexandria for a job promotion and was selected into the Commander's Development Program with the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). While in the program, Gwen went to sea for six days aboard the USS America and describes the experience as Five Thousand Men and me. She participated in sea trials aboard the USS Arleigh Burke and attended the christening ceremony of the USS Miami. For ten years she led inspection teams to all of the naval shipyards. She also is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Management Program. While assigned as the Acting Inspector General for NAVSEA, she was in charge of two U.S. Navy Reserve Units and conducted a Change of Command Ceremony, an almost unheard of assignment for a civilian. Now she writes in her head during early morning walks with her dogs. She values her good health and relationships with a variety of different people, including her husband, close friends and grandchildren, as well as her animals---all are the jewels in her life.