Lorena Hickok was the daughter of a dressmaker and a troubled Wisconsin butter maker. She left home at the age of 14, then managed to graduate high school and enroll in college. When she failed out — we like this bit — she took up journalism, becoming a trailblazer for women in the field, author of several important biographies, and shaper of government policy. However, Hick is chiefly remembered for her 30-year relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt. Despite serious censorship by Hickok's family, her biographer, and even herself (she admittedly burned explicit notes from the First Lady), there are over 3,000 letters between the women preserved at Roosevelt's Presidential Library, and their passion would be difficult to misread. "Hick darling," writes Roosevelt, "Oh! I want to put my arms around you, I ache to hold you close." Hick: A Love Story, a solo show by the Crackpot Crones, is based upon these letters, firsthand interviews with people who knew Hickok, and an excerpt from a staged biography by the late great "Old Dyke" vanguard Pat Bond.
