Looking For Salvation at the Dairy Queen

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is the debut coming-of-age novel by American author and journalist Susan Gregg Gilmore. Originally published in 2008 by Crown Publishing Group, the novel is a work of Southern fiction set in small-town Georgia during the 1970s. The story traces the first-person narrator Catherine Grace Cline’s attempts to escape her provincial hometown for a life of independence in Atlanta. Shocking family secrets complicate her self-discovery journey and force her to re-evaluate her definition of home. The novel explores themes including Redefining Salvation Beyond Religious Doctrine, The Conflict Between Personal Dreams and Family Legacy, and The Challenges of Forgiving a Lie.

This guide refers to the 2008 Three Rivers Press paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of sexual content, bullying, and death.

Plot Summary

First-person narrator Catherine Grace Cline dreams of escaping her small hometown of Ringgold, Georgia. She lives with her father, Marshall Cline (Daddy), the preacher at Cedar Grove Baptist Church, and her younger sister, Martha Ann Cline. The sisters spend most of their time at the local Dairy Queen, where they plan to escape Ringgold for a more exciting life in Atlanta. Catherine Grace has been desperate to leave Ringgold ever since her mother Lena Mae Cline’s supposed drowning when she was six. She blames God for taking her mother and doubts he cares about her future. She comes to rely on the friendship and care of her surrogate mother Gloria Jean Graves, a flamboyant, five-time divorcée who lives next door. Gloria Jean is one of the only people who understands Catherine Grace’s desire for freedom and tells her about her mother. Gloria Jean reveals that Lena Mae was a talented singer who also dreamed of leaving Ringgold for Nashville.

At the start of the summer, Catherine Grace has a revelation and tells her father she is ready to be baptized. Daddy makes plans to baptize Martha Ann and the sisters’ rival Emma Sue Huckstep on the same day. At the time of the event, Catherine Grace gets upset with Emma Sue for insulting Martha Ann and shoves her into the lake. As punishment, her father forbids her from visiting the Dairy Queen for the summer. A devastated Catherine Grace goes to Gloria Jean for advice, sobbing that she’ll never escape Ringgold. Gloria Jean suggests that Catherine Grace start a jam business and save up money so she can plot her route to freedom. Following Gloria Jean’s advice, Catherine Grace and Martha Ann make and sell “Preacher’s Strawberry Jam” using strawberries from their late grandfather’s old garden (291). Catherine Grace saves a good deal of money, but ends the venture when she develops a severe rash from eating too many strawberries. Witnessing her suffering, Daddy allows Catherine Grace to return to the Dairy Queen.

Catherine Grace gets upset with Daddy again when he develops a new relationship with the Sunday school teacher, Miss Margaret Raines. Viewing her as an unwelcome replacement for her mother, she tries sabotaging Miss Raines’s visits to Sunday lunch. She feels temporarily relieved when Daddy assures her he isn’t going to marry Miss Raines. Then one day, Catherine Grace’s home economics class plans a Mother-Daughter Tea for Mother’s Day. Because Catherine Grace’s mother is deceased, her teacher tasks her with pouring the tea and suggests she invite Gloria Jean to the event. Too embarrassed by Gloria Jean’s flashy style, Catherine Grace lies to avoid asking her. She later apologizes to Gloria Jean, who shows her a photograph of a young, carefree Lena Mae and tells her they are all brave women destined to be different.

For Catherine Grace’s birthday, Daddy gives her a set of blue vinyl luggage. Thrilled, Catherine Grace continues her plans to leave Ringgold. Her plans go awry that Christmas, however, when she falls for the town’s “perfect” boy, Hank Blankenship, when they’re cast opposite each other in the church Christmas pageant. As their relationship intensifies, Catherine Grace realizes that their futures conflict. Hank plans to remain in Ringgold to run his family’s dairy farm but Catherine is still determined to leave. Confused and worried, Catherine instigates a fight with Hank at senior prom and ends the relationship. On her 18th birthday, she boards a Greyhound bus for Atlanta. As the bus pulls away, Catherine Grace sees Hank outside the window, but turns away and closes her eyes. 

In Atlanta, Catherine Grace rents a room from an eccentric elderly woman named Miss Myrtie Mabie. While here, she grows close with Miss Mabie and her kind housekeeper, Flora. She meanwhile secures a job in the gourmet foods department at Davison’s department store. Through letters, she learns from Martha Ann that her father is heartbroken over Catherine Grace’s absence and that Hank is now dating their classmate Ruthie Morgan. Focused on her career, Catherine Grace forgoes returning home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, straining her family relationships. Martha Ann’s letters grow more frantic, revealing that Miss Raines is pregnant by a mysterious fiancé whom no one has ever met. Catherine dismisses her sister’s suspicion that their father is the baby’s father.

Catherine Grace receives a telegram stating that her father has died. Overcome with guilt, she returns to Ringgold. Shortly before Daddy’s funeral, Gloria Jean introduces Catherine Grace to a strange woman who claims to be her mother, Lena Mae. Lena Mae confesses that she never drowned but ran away from her unfulfilling life to pursue a career in music. She claims that Catherine Grace’s father forbade her to return to Ringgold; now that he is dead she wants to rekindle her relationships with her daughters. Catherine Grace is so angry and shocked that she faints. 

Upon waking, Catherine Grace goes to the church and demands to see Daddy’s body to confirm that he is dead. After seeing him, she confronts a distraught Miss Raines, who admits Daddy is the father of her unborn child. He could not marry Miss Raines because he was still legally married to Lena Mae.

Reeling from her parents’ betrayals, Catherine Grace decides to leave Ringgold for good. On her way out of town, she visits her best friend, Lolly Dempsey, and vents about her parents. Lolly encourages Catherine Grace to consider her mother’s side of the story. Frustrated, Catherine Grace heads to the Dairy Queen. The owner, Eddie Franklin, challenges Catherine Grace to see the love she has in Ringgold and the complexity of her loved ones’ lives. A furious Catherine Grace yells at Eddie for interfering, but soon realizes he is right.

Catherine Grace returns home and has a long-overdue conversation with Lena Mae, who expresses regret for leaving her children. Looking into her mother’s sad eyes, Catherine Grace begins to forgive her. Shortly thereafter, she decides to stay in Ringgold and announces that she will deliver Daddy’s eulogy. Before the funeral, she apologizes to Miss Raines, invites her to the church, and insists that she move in with her, Martha Ann, and Lena Mae. Catherine Grace delivers the eulogy, acknowledging Daddy’s sins, but celebrating his love for Ringgold.

Catherine Grace settles back into life in Ringgold. Lena Mae ends up leaving town to return to the road, but Catherine Grace finds happiness with Miss Raines, her newborn daughter Flora Grace, and Martha Ann. Meanwhile, she starts a new garden, revitalizes her jam-making hobby into a full-time business, and gives her blue luggage to Lolly. She also rekindles her connection with Hank Blankenship, who becomes the new preacher at Cedar Grove. Catherine wonders if they might end up together after all. She realizes her dreams are always changing.