The Road to Rhode Island

As someone who grew up Baptist in Rhode Island, I hold Roger Williams, founder of the first Baptist church in America and of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in especially high esteem. I grew up just a few miles down the road from Roger Williams' mission to the Indians, Smith Castle, and my father, Eugene Roy, was born in Warwick, RI. But I was never accepted as a true Rhode Islander by many of the natives because I was born in Florida and my mother, Ruth (Peigler) Roy, was from North Carolina.