Reflections on the Gene Pool

About the Book

The Gene Pool

(Or else, perhaps, Something in the Water)

 Every family has its own peculiarities, its funny little, off-beat traditions or characteristic features--oh yes, she's got the Haberman eyes--.  This family happens to write poetry.  It must be something in the genes, or else in the water!  During the American Civil War, an ancestor wrote home from a Southern Prison elegant poetic lines about the struggle and agony there.  His granddaughter, Daisy Wollangk wrote witty lines which her family and friends treasured, but which were never distributed to the general public.  Katy Haberman, daughter of Daisy, started writing poetry while still a child and continues to this day, and her daughter, Jillian Haberman is already a published author as well as a poet—it’s a “family thing”.

About the Author

Daisy (Dexter) Wollangk was born in 1916 in northern Wisconsin.  Her mother died while Daisy was a baby, and her carpenter father raised her and her two brothers and her sister during the hard times of the Great Depression.  Daisy and her siblings extracted joy from music, poetry, art and humor.  When she was 20 she married Chester Wollangk, and her husband and children were an inspiration for poetry and stories.  Daisy lived a full life in Wisconsin until she retired to Florida in 1979 where she died of cancer in 1989. 

Katy (Wollangk) Haberman, daughter of Daisy and Chet Wollangk, was born in 1940 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and retains a Midwestern viewpoint although she has lived in Houston, Texas for the last 30 years.  Katy has been a research writer, a stay-to-home mom, a realtor, a teacher and an artist as well as a writer.  Katy lives part time at a farm in Nebraska where she is active in art and poetry groups.  Writing poetry and prose has always been as natural to her as eating and breathing.  Sometimes poems seem to appear full-blown and demand to be written down, and other times, a thought “pupates” for a long time before it hatches as a poem.

Jillian Haberman, daughter of Katy and John Haberman was born in 1966 in Madison, Wisconsin, but grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and Houston, Texas giving her an eclectic view on life and the world.  She has traveled extensively and is currently an art teacher in the public school system.  Having finished her Masters in Education with thoughts of a PhD Jillian is a life long learner in the truest sense.  She has enjoyed words since she could pronounce them and has written poetry for almost as long.