                            THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994                  TAG: 9407280048
SECTION: HAMPTON ROADS WOMAN      PAGE: 03   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Long  :  107 lines

CHILD CAREGIVER AND AUTHOR PROVES THAT ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, IF YOU BELIEVE MARTHA ROSS-RODGERS

OWNING AND MANAGING a day-care center would be enough for most.

In 1991, the business opened and by 1992, it was making a profit. Someone else might be satisfied with that. But not Martha Ross-Rodgers.

Oh, no. She had to go and write a book. A book about race, poverty, growing up hard and working even harder. Wouldn't a kiddie book have been enough?

Ross-Rodgers works from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., sitting behind a crowded desk in Luv-N-Care Day Care center, trying not to mix her food and book orders.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

``I believe that other people are going to help you but you need to help yourself,'' said Ross-Rodgers, her hand on a phone book, ready to see who could use her as a motivational speaker or has room to display her book.

``Plus I'm not the kind of person who likes to sit back and wait for things to happen. . . I believe in the message in the book, that you need to believe in yourself and when no one else does, you have to muster that in yourself.''

And she has. She averages two or three speaking engagements a month and her book is in several local bookstores, including three Navy Exchanges and Waldenbooks in Norfolk.

If Oprah were to call her tomorrow, Ross-Rodgers wouldn't be surprised. If an international book signing tour came through next week, it's only what she expects.

She hasn't turned the literary world inside out - she's only sold about 502 copies - but she's convinced it's only a matter of time.

It's no wonder her friends call her inspirational.

``I'll start the second book,'' Ross-Rodgers confides in a thick Memphis accent, ``after this one reaches the New York Times best-seller list.''

It's ironic that Ross-Rodgers has become this very ambitious, self-promoting entrepreneur. As a young girl with a stuttering problem, she wouldn't have dared any spotlight.

``People would tease you or they didn't wait for you to get out the first word,'' said Ross-Rodgers.

``It was very painful.''

Ross-Rodgers was born in Tennessee in 1958. She took speech classes throughout high school and graduated in 1977. She married Reginald Rodgers, a Navy man, two years later and had her first daughter, Shirizza, later that year.

The family toured Hawaii, Long Beach, Calif., and San Diego, where their second daughter, Gina, was born in 1981.

A few years later, the family moved to Florida and in 1984, Ross-Rodgers said she had a dream that changed her life.

``God came to me in a dream and told me to spread his word,''' Ross-Rodgers remembers.

``I said to him that I couldn't, people would think that I was crazy. Now I could care less about that.''

It was then that Ross-Rodgers decided to use her life to help other people. She completed a sociology degree in 1987, one she had to abandon because of her first pregnancy.

The family moved to Norfolk later that year and Ross-Rodgers tried to find work as a counselor or social worker. She was unsuccessful until someone called her house by mistake.

``It was the owner of a day-care center who dialed the wrong number,'' Ross-Rodgers said.

``But we talked for a few minutes, and she asked me if I'd like to come and work for her.''

Ross-Rodgers began substituting for day-care workers at the Norfolk day care and eventually became full time. After 2 1/2 years, she decided to open her own business.

``The reason why I wanted to be a social worker is because I felt I could have some kind of impact on children,'' Ross-Rodgers said.

``I can do that with my business. We are with these kids at least eight hours a day, hopefully we'll have an impact on these kids.''

She had the same thought when she crawled into bed one night in 1990 with a spiral notebook and began a story about a teenage girl named Betty who grew up poor and worked hard to get out of the inner-city. After a month of late nights, Betty grows up and gets a chauffeur and a stable of horses. And Ross-Rodgers had a book.

The story is a simplistic tale, but after two years Ross-Rodgers found a publisher.

``I believe in my work. I believe I have a message to tell,'' Ross-Rodgers said.

``I named it `Awakenings' because if you are asleep or half-asleep, it will wake you. Wake you up to not giving up.''

Ross-Rodgers spends a lot of her day flipping through the Yellow Pages trying to turn that motivation into book sales. Turning those book sales into something tangible. She may not gain a fortune, but she's proof that good things happen when you believe.

``If you say you don't feel good or don't think well of yourself, you're condemned. But if you say you look and feel good, that's OK,'' Ross-Rodgers said.

``It's very important for women to believe in themselves and not give up when they have something they want to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

BILL KELLEY III/Staff

Martha Ross-Rodgers, left, autographs a book for Jacqueline Gilliam

of Virginia Beach. The author's first novel, ``Awakenings,'' is

about a teenage girl who flees the inner city through hard work.

Graphic