The ten Betsy-Tacy stories, as well as the three other books set in "Deep Valley," are based largely on fact. Most of the people and places mentioned in the books were real people and real places, and most of the events described really did happen in more or less that way.
"Deep Valley" is of course Mankato, and Maud described the town and its landmarks in her books. She did change the names of some buildings and streets, which has caused a few problems for visitors making a pilgrimage to "Deep Valley." But she really did live in a little yellow house at the end of a street which stopped at the bottom of a big hill. There really was a bench where she and "Tacy" shared their dinners. There was a Carnegie library, and a Lincoln Park, which was, and is, triangular in shape.
And the characters: these were Maud's family, friends, teachers, acquaintances. "Betsy" is, of course, Maud herself, and as in the books, she had two sisters. "Julia" was Kathleen Hart, and she did sing grand opera as an adult. "Margaret" was Maud's younger sister Helen, who became a librarian.
Again as in the books, Maud had two best friends. "Tacy" was Frances "Bick" Kenney, and she really did live right across the street, really had long red curls, and really gave Maud a little glass pitcher on Maud's fifth birthday. (This pitcher is on display at the Mankato Public Library today.) "Tib" was Marjorie "Midge" Gerlach, who was indeed small, blonde, and athletic. The three remained lifelong friends.
"The Crowd" as described in the high school books was real, too -- with one notable exception. Cab, Bonnie, Irma, Carney, Winona, Larry and Hubert Humphreys, and Tacy's sister Katie were all based on people Maud knew in Mankato. When creating "Joe Willard" however, Maud strayed a bit further from fact. In the books, Joe makes his first appearance in Heaven to Betsy, as an orphan working his way through high school. And though Joe was very like Maud's husband Delos Lovelace, Maud did not meet Delos until she was in her mid-twenties. Alas, the friendly competition between Betsy and Joe in the annual essay contest is "mere fiction," as many of Maud's fans have learned to their sorrow!
"Mr. and Mrs. Ray" were much like Maud's parents, Thomas and Stella Hart. There were Sunday night lunches, and Mr. Hart did make onion sandwiches-- remembered decades afterward by the boys who once ate them.
As for "Betsy" -- Maud did write in a letter to a fan that "as the series progressed, I glamorized Betsy as much as I pleased, giving her all sorts of charms that I certainly did not possess." Well, perhaps. But perhaps not. For of course Maud was Betsy, writing in her special maple tree, climbing the Big Hill, reading in the Carnegie library, singing arond the piano, going to dances, and always, making up stories and writing them down.
I have been a few times now to Mankato, and I have seen Lincoln Park, Betsy's and Tacy's houses, The Big Hill, the Carnegie Library, and more. I have trouble, while I am there, envisioning "Betsy" in her turn-of-the-century "Deep Valley." But once away, reading the books, I do see Betsy with her family, with her friends, and in the town she loved so much, and I believe I see al this almost as she truly saw it, and as she truly lived it. I am all but there with her, and oh, how I wish I were.
And this is, I believe, Maud's special gift--her gift as a writer, and
her gift to us.