When Bill and I and our three older children moved in, I was pregnant with my youngest son, Mikel. It was summer and we all loved to roam the beach below the sandbank and across the street from our house.

Des Moines had only 4,500 residents in 1963; the beach, a Covenant Church camp, and a number of church sponsored retirement homes were the main attractions. Main Street was about four blocks long, with a supermarket on either end and a friendly, small grocery store in between. It was to be expected that we soon knew many of the people who lived in Des Moines, and most of the mysteries,...