The Rise of Rachel Stark

Extreme Poverty, Bullies, Even Rapists Couldn’t Stop Her
How One Teen Rose above It All to Become a National Icon
Rachel Stark, one of five children, grew up in a tumbledown one-bedroom shack in the mountains of East Tennessee. Her family was dirt poor, and when she was 18 they moved to Nebraska in hopes of a better life. But things got worse – a lot worse – before they got better.

Rachel was bullied in her new high school as a "hillbilly" with a Southern accent, then raped in a cemetery by two football players who had a grudge against her brother. She was devastated weeks later when she discovered she was pregnant, and her father insisted she have an abortion.

But she was not alone. She had a few good friends, drawn to her by her character and her angelic singing voice, who raced against the clock on a snowy Christmas Eve in an attempt to prevent the abortion.

Later, she fell in love with one of those friends, then went on to become a national celebrity as a country singer and a supporter of equal rights for women. Her newfound fame and fortune changed her life, and rocked her relationship with the man she loved.