Honeysuckle Sippin by Wanda Baham Sturrock

When the sunbeam shown through the kitchen door… her mama died. The death of her mother in 1953, just two years after losing her only brother, leaves twelve year old Brenda Kay fearful her daddy may be next. Lifes always changing, he says after all, and puts action to the words by dumping her on various relatives, winding up with Grandma and snuff-spitting Pappy in a little dead-end town. Brenda Kay expects the worst - loved ones tend to die when shes not looking - but Turney, TX, becomes a series of surprises, from a boy who seems to read her thoughts to a girl who smiles through her handicaps and a perceptive young lady of the evening who becomes Brenda Kays friend. Things are looking up, but then Daddy shows up, and he has a girlfriend . . .