Gooding says that “the question of who my grandfather was and why he left my father in a state-operated boarding home in 1928, at three months old, had always been a part of my ancestry.” 

Her father, who took the name of the Gooding family who raised him, was always told that he was the son of a Texas rancher and a red-headed French woman. When the author began digging for more on her roots, she discovered that her grandfather, Al Helmick, was not from Texas and her grandmother was not from France. 

Clues led her to Oregon, Washington, Iowa and ultimately to Liberia, Africa. Gooding says one question led to one hundred more. “What I discovered was that the children of Monrovia, Liberia loved Al Helmick, their Joe Blow.”

About the Author



Jan Gooding Cornett lives in Wendell, Idaho. An Ordinary Guy is about her experiences, joys and rewards in seeking out the questions about her father’s and his father’s past. “To the people of Monrovia in 1946, Joe Blow and Al Helmick were one and the same. This is his story, my dad’s and mine.”