About The Author

Tedi Tuttle attributes her success as a singer, writer, and composer to the talents, passion, skills, and instruction of her parents, aunts, uncles, and school teachers. Her father served in WWII in the Navy Armed Guard and would drop off Army units on beaches to fight for freedom on a world stage crossing the equator over 30 times; he was a reader of books who quoted Shakespeare, and entertained friends and family by reciting Robert Service stories. He could sing, tap dance, and take part in plays as an actor on a local stage. His adventures in Alaska are legendary to locals as he helped build the AlCan Highway in the late 1940s and 1950s. Tedi’s mother was a fine artist and a trained concert pianist, who loved painting landscapes and portraits, while teaching school on all levels from Elementary to college art, and directed local theatre productions. Tedi’s mother and Father sang duets and her Aunts and Uncles sang around their piano to practice for local gatherings—trios and quartets. Tedi soaked in all these glorious examples, learning to play the piano from her mother, all the while utilizing her mother’s music theory books from college. Aunt Zelma would gather Nadine, Carla, and Tedi, the Tuttle sisters, at Grandpa’s old brick house and play her 1917 used, upright piano to practice their vocal skills to sing trios for local celebrations, which included: Easter programs, Independence Day, and Christmas. Tedi learned to harmonize under this Aunt’s tutelage. Born in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, Tedi grew up on a ranch in a rural setting surrounded in the arms of her many aunts, uncles, and cousins. She learned good work habits from caring for cattle, chickens, and farm animals. She participated in team sports: volleyball, basketball, and softball. She grew up with a mitt on her left hand and a baseball in her right hand; two uncles had played local baseball as catcher and pitcher. She enjoyed playing shortstop and pitcher position in fast-pitch softball from age 12. They were a sit-down-for-dinner type of family every day. And their house was the hotspot for Thanksgiving Dinner; her mother was an excellent cook for delicious meals on a daily basis. After high school, she moved to a junior college town and began as a Commercial Art and Design Major, received an Associate Degree, found a handsome dairyman at a local church party, and married him to start a family. Three years later they moved to Provo, Utah where he pursued a Master’s Degree at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Science Education to become a school teacher. He encouraged Tedi to attend some classes, which she did and later earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English. After delivering her sixth child, she took classes from Professor G. Roddey from Indiana, who taught her to crystalize words on paper in a coherent fashion with meaning. As a mother of nine, she celebrates life as she tends her flower garden, bakes bread, travels, hikes the hills of home, attends any local theatre she may be visiting, and keeps a daily journal. She enjoys sewing pieced quilts along with her husband of 41 years, making freezer jam, and her motto is: everything is better with butter and bacon. She currently sings with Mountain West Chorale in West Jordan, Utah, is taking on a new border doodle named Einstein, does Zumba on weekdays, and continues adventures with six grandchildren.