Mackenzie Green
Mackenzie Green arrived in this life kicking and screaming
and she hasn't stopped yet. This was a baby with attitude. Born and raised
in Orlando, Florida, where she lived with her two sisters (one older, one
younger), mother and step-father, life was made worse because they were
poor, but determined to keep it a secret.
Mackenzie couldn't grow up fast enough. Birth had trapped her in a place
she didn't want to be. She found the place of life and the level of intellect
too slow in the white trash, high school drop-out neighborhood. Defiant
and determined to distinguish herself from the locals at every turn, she
refused to speak "their language", at least, never in a Southern
accent.
Soon, It was the beginning of the '60's. She finished high school and took
a job as an information operator with the phone company.
There had to be more. Somehow life seemed like it would be better on the
other side of the country, so she transferred to Fairfield, California,
then left her job for Seattle where she was a relief manager and checker
for Safeway. She owned a record company and signed a singer who went to
No. 3 on the Seattle pop charts. Two years later, she was back in Fairfield
working for the phone company again.
She did a tour of Nashville and landed a few writing contracts for her original
C & W songs, then back to Fairfield.
But changing places wasn't enough - she wanted a real change.
Nearby, was Travis Air Force Base. Now that was interesting. If she could
just be 5'2" she could be a stewardess. Wearing the highest heels she
could find and a wig stuffed to reach heights that Lyle Lovett can only
dream of, she made the grade with the "Flying Tigers", military
air lift command.
They went to some unusual places; Vietnam - transporting troops - "Coffee,
Tea or M-16?" She liked this job. It was exciting. Close to the action.
Dangerous. She stayed for 17 years.
By now she was on the losing side of forty. She'd spent her whole life trying
to get on the winning side. And she wasn't giving up now. Giving up is not
her strong point. Even as a toddler when the frequent form of babysitting
her involved tying her shoelaces in a million knots and leaving her to undo
them, she never gave up. She liked things that were tough and challenging
and what most other people considered impossible. So she became a bounty
hunter.
It was sometime over the course of the years that Mackenzie Green was born.
Reborn. Reinvented.
And the rest...is unbelievable.