Billie Letts

Billie Letts was an American novelist who was best known for her successful 1995 novel Where the Heart Is, which was later turned into a 2000 movie of the same name starring Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd. Born in Tulsa at the height of the Great Depression, Letts always dreamed of becoming a professional writer. With that goal in mind, she went on to study English at Southeast Missouri State University. However, her ambition of becoming a novelist was put on hold after she married her husband Dennis. Letts and her husband had three children together, one of whom was Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts. Over the course of the next several decades, Billie Letts wrote short stories in her spare time, while juggling the responsibilities of raising a family and teaching English at the university level. By the mid 1990s, all of Letts' children had grown up and left the house, allowing her more time to write. She started writing short stories, one of which, about a pregnant teenager abandoned by her boyfriend, she eventually turned into a novel. Where the Heart Is was not an immediate success when it was released in 1995, but thanks to a push by Oprah Winfrey, who endorsed the novel in her book club, the book shot up the bestseller list in 1998, eventually going on to sell over 3 million copies worldwide. Already 60, Letts had become an overnight literary sensation, and it was not long before Hollywood came calling. A movie version of her book was released in 2000 and starred Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd, as well as a cameo role by Letts' husband, Dennis. Letts published a few more novels in the years that followed, including 1998's The Honk and Holler Opening Soon and 2004's Shoot the Moon, although neither equaled the enormous success of her debut. After Dennis died of lung cancer in 2008, Letts ceased publishing any new work. She died from pneumonia at her home in Tulsa on August 2, 2014 . Billie Letts was 76.