After the Flag Has Been Folded: A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost to War--and the Mother Who Held Her Family Together

Karen Spears was nine years old, living with her family in a trailer in rural Tennessee, when her father, David Spears, was killed in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. It was 1966—in a nation being torn apart by a war nobody wanted, in an emotionally charged Southern landscape stained with racism and bigotry—and suddenly the care and well-being of three small children were solely in the hands of a frightened young widow with no skills and a ninth-grade education. But thanks to a mother's remarkable courage, strength, and stubborn tenacity, a family in the midst of chaos and in severe crisis miraculously pulled together to achieve its own version of the American Dream.

Beginning on the day Karen learns of her father's death and ending thirty years later with her pilgrimage to the battlefield where he died, half a world away from the family's hometown, After the Flag Has Been Folded is a triumphant tale of reconciliation between a daughter and her father, a daughter and her nation—and a poignant remembrance of a mother's love and heroism.

This powerful memoir is a testament to what happens when the worst comes to pass—and the unshakeable love that holds a family together.

• A Daughter's Search for Truth: Thirty years after receiving the telegram, a daughter journeys to the Ia Drang Valley to stand on the battlefield where her father died, seeking answers and reconciliation.
• The True Cost of War: A portrait of a young widow with a ninth-grade education, left to raise three children in a Tennessee trailer park, and her tenacious fight for her family's version of the American Dream.
• A Southern Coming of Age: An unflinchingly honest look at growing up in the 1960s South, navigating poverty, family chaos, and the confusing legacy of a war that divided a nation.
• A Mother's Unsung Heroism: A powerful and poignant tribute to the strength of a mother whose courage and stubborn love held her children together after their world fell apart.

Karen Spears was nine years old, living with her family in a trailer in rural Tennessee, when her father, David Spears, was killed in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. It was 1966 -- in a nation being torn apart by a war nobody wanted, in an emotionally charged Southern landscape stained with racism and bigotry -- and suddenly the care and well-being of three small children were solely in the hands of a frightened young widow with no skills and a ninth-grade education. But thanks to a mother's remarkable courage, strength, and stubborn tenacity, a family in the midst of chaos and in severe crisis miraculously pulled together to achieve its own version of the American Dream.

Beginning on the day Karen learns of her father's death and ending thirty years later with her pilgrimage to the battlefield where he died, half a world away from the family's hometown, After the Flag Has Been Folded is a triumphant tale of reconciliation between a daughter and her father, a daughter and her nation -- and a poignant remembrance of a mother's love and heroism.

“Bittersweet” - The Oregonian (Portland)

“Karen Spears Zacharias has written a dead-honest, raw-edged memoir . . . wonderfully told” - Joseph L. Galloway, co-author of the New York Times bestseller WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG

“One of the most original, heartbreaking and off-the-nose books about the Vietnam experience ever written . . . brilliant” - Pat Conroy

“A beautiful and important book . . . Hero Mama will stay with me always.” - Silas House, Author of Clay's Quilt and The Coal Tatoo

“Touch[es] the hearts of families who have dealt with death, even if the death wasn’t caused by war.” - Las Vegas Review-Journal

“An important and triumphant work of literature, a must read for every American in another time of war.” - Military.com

“Affecting.” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Zacharias knows firsthand the shock and life-altering sorrow of losing a parent to a war. [An] absorbing and sometimes searing story.” - U.S. Federal News