The Great Triumph

About the Book

As a young girl, Thelma Osborne Richardson witnessed the hopes and hardships of the Great Migration, when her family left the rural south for Detroit in 1929. In The Great Triumph – A Memoir of Courage and Devotion, her daughter, journalist Jeanne Estelle Saddler, brings to life a moving family story shaped by perseverance, pride, and the pursuit of a better life. In her debut memoir, Saddler draws from her mother’s vivid memories, stories rich with humor, heartbreak, and quiet resilience, to paint an unforgettable portrait of a woman who faced the weight of history with grace and grit. From Jim Crow to the civil rights movement to the election of Barack Obama, The Great Triumph traces the arc of a century through one extraordinary life.

Antero Pietila, Journalist and Author of The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins and Not in My Neighborhood

"In The Great Triumph, journalist Jeanne E. Saddler writes a perceptive, evocative reconstruction of a century of dreams, struggles, and triumphs. Through her mother’s exciting, funny, and sometimes bittersweet stories, Saddler captures the strength passed down through generations of a family navigating a changing political and cultural landscape. A particularly poignant chapter outlines the extraordinary measures, including hush-hush subterfuge, she took that would alter her son’s fate forever. This is an all-American story. "

Jeanne Saddler

Coming on January 23, 2026

About the Book

Antero Pietila, Journalist and Author of The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins and Not in My Neighborhood