Ruth Ingalls LeDoux of Brookhaven has been invited to the WhiteHouse on September 17 for a breakfast reception hosted by FirstLady Laura Bush.

The reception is part of the White House Salute to America’sAuthors Series. This particular reception, Women of the West,honors Willa Cather, Edna Ferber, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. LeDouxis a relative of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

“We are double first cousins, twice removed,” LeDoux explained.”To simplify it, I usually say second cousins. My great-grandfatherand Laura’s father were brothers who married sisters.”

LeDoux’s brother inherited the family Bible, which has Laura’sbirth and marriage inscribed in it. He decided to loan it to theLaura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. LeDoux believesthat is how the White House was able to locate her and her twobrothers and sister, who also were invited. All plan to attend thereception.

“When I got the invitation, I wondered if it was genuine. Icalled my sister to see if she had received one,” LeDoux said.

Growing up in Louisiana, LeDoux knew about her famous cousin inMissouri.

“My grandfather bought land sight unseen in Louisiana in 1919and moved his family there from Missouri,” LeDoux said. “WhenLaura’s books came out, the family recognized stories of things inthem that had actually happened to other members of the familyinstead of to Laura’s family. My dad and grandfather went fromLouisiana to Missouri to visit Laura, and my grandfather pointedthis out to her. She explained that she was not writing straightbiography.”

LeDoux never met Laura, who died the year LeDoux graduated fromhigh school.

LeDoux, like Laura and Laura’s mother, went on to be a teacher,teaching 16 years in Louisiana and for four more years after sheand her husband, Lowell, moved to Brookhaven. She taught fifthgrade at Mullins and second grade at Martin Elementary beforeretiring in 1991.

“My brothers and sister who are going are all teachers, too,”LeDoux commented. “It runs in the family.”

LeDoux is excited about her first trip to Washington, D.C., andespecially about being invited into the White House.

“They told us to expect to stay two hours,” she said.

A senator from Missouri has arranged for Ingalls family membersto tour the Capitol while they are in Washington, and LeDoux andher family expect to do a lot of other sightseeing during theirvisit.