Mrs. Belden Legge was born Dorothy Marie Tompkins in Arcadia, Kansas,
October 24, 1924. She was the youngest of six children born of the
union of Jessie Louella Smith and Charles Andrew Tompkins. She was
graduated from Mulberry High School, Mulberry, Kansas, in May, 1941.
She attended the Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg, Kansas,
and worked for the Dean of Women to help pay her way. In a relatively
short period of time, she was offered a job teaching all six elementary
grades at a country school in Radley, Kansas. She and her mother, now a
widow, lived in a two room little house with a pot-bellied stove and a
feather mattress. A great deal of the time, I lived with them. I am
Michael E. Benson, another Inknbeans Press author and the nephew of
Mrs. Belden Legge.
Dorothy became committed to the Lord when she was only seven years of
age. Her love for Jesus Christ has continued without pause from then
until now, and she is a dedicated, consecrated Christian.
Dorothy married Belden Burr Legge in March, 1945. He was the love of
her life, and they settled first in Pittsburg, Kansas and later in
Pryor, Oklahoma where she still resides. She and Belden had five
children: Larry, Danny, Judy, Kathy and John, and grandchildren Deana,
Christy, and Ericka. Danny, Judy and John have already gone to be with
Jesus, and they were preceded by her husband, Belden some years prior
to that.
Mrs. Belden Legge is a gifted poet. Her poems of praise, she says, were
given to her by the Holy Spirit. Her poems of love were inspired by the
love and compassion she feels for her family, friends, and sometimes
even strangers she happens to meet.
