Claudia E. Blackwell

Hard work and dedication runs in my family. My parents came to this country from Germany when they were 20-years-old and built a wonderful life for our family. My father started an interior decorating business in Wisconsin when he arrived in the United States, but his dream was always to build a motel near Disney World in Orlando. He did just that designing a 50-unit motel five miles from Walt Disney World. Our home was actually connected onto the motel located in Kissimmee. Even though we were close to Disney, Kissimmee was still a very rural place growing up. I went to a high school where...