Gwenda LedBetter began her fifty years of storytelling in Asheville, North Carolina, becoming the Story Lady at the libraries, and on Tales from the Red Rocker on WLOS-TV. Her first telling at the National Festival in Jonesborough , Tennessee was in 1979. She returned to tell and teach people from all over in workshops there. Then traveled, telling, across the country, was awarded the Oracle Award from N.S.N in 2006. She’s a member of Asheville’s Storytelling Circle and sat in the first circle forming the North Carolina Storytelling Circle, and received their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
She’s written and performed two one-woman shows: Friday’s Father, 2006 and Old Woman in the Basement, 2009.
Madeleine L’Engle wrote, "Your stories touch the core of my strongest feelings", and from an unknown member of an audience, "Your stories make me proud to be human."
The origin of this tale is from an old Yiddish folk song translated into English by singer and storyteller, Nancy Schimmel. Other names are "Just Enough to Make a Story", "The Old Coat", and "The Tailor and His Coat."