When Judie Cole, 78, and Louise Halotek, 82, met in Peoria in 2009, their relationship blossomed into something special and unexpected. It reached a creative turning point a few years later when they began attending together the Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Colorado.
Inspired by readings at the event, Cole and Halotek began corresponding poems via email and what started out as a line of random e-mails, turned into a collection of poems that explore the lives and challenges of western settlers.
The writings became a self-published book called “The Magic of the Red Dress” now available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
