KURT WEHRMEISTER, after earning a journalism degree from the University of Illinois in 1979, spent his career in editorial and production of newspapers and magazines, in corporate communications and media relations, and as an award-winning local columnist. He helped raise his two sons in Geneva, Illinois, where he had grown up (and where he forged a lifelong friendship with Kathryn Nagel's father, Rick Nagel). He is now semiretired and residing with his wife Paige in Santa Rosa, California - where he looks forward to reading Cumie's story to their five grandchildren.

KATHRYN NAGEL, a graduate of the Northern Illinois University School of Art and Design, is a freelance artist and children's book illustrator from Geneva, Illinois. "Cumie" is her first children's book. Among other projects, she is presently writing and illustrating "Expressionisms," a book of fun and funny characters created through delightful twists of common English idioms.