The Life and Journey of Truckstop Shirley

About the Book

Truckstop Shirley will tell the story of the first black woman in South Carolina to manage a truck stop on a major interstate, highway I-85 in South Carolina. Shirley, a six five, 355-pound woman with size 15 shoes, began her journey picking cotton as the daughter of a tenant farmer. Shirley picked and carried over three hundred pounds of cotton per day, on the farm located in Fair Play, South Carolina. The landowners sold the land in which her family tenant farmed to purchase a truck stop, in which Shirley worked as a waitress, cook, and eventually a manager for almost forty years. This story is a story of courage, perseverance, and survival in the life of Shirley Estrich.

About the Author

Rev. Dr. Romando James, PhD, professor emeritus at Clemson University, is the founder of Operation Common Sense with PRIDE Ministries, which operates on the paradigm Your Roots Control Your Fruits. Operation PRIDE was created with a mission and vision to lead and encourage youth, adults, and inmates into personal and growing relationships with Common Sense with PRIDE by encouraging them to maximize and pursue the following acronyms: P—Purpose R—Respect I—Integrity D—Determination and Discipline E—Enthusiasm These five roots are aimed to create a continuous cycle of achievement for future harmony. Dr. James’s vision is to reproduce his paradigm of PRIDE in order that this element will promote peace in an atmosphere and time of war, racial and religious inequality, and political differences.