She Took In Her Husband’s Affair Baby as Her Own
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Mary Sparks lived through heartbreak, secrecy, infidelity, and family scandal, but her Catholic faith shaped the way she responded to each one. First, as a young woman in Indiana, she refused to give up her daughter born out of wedlock. Decades later, after learning her husband had fathered a child during an affair, Mary made another extraordinary decision: she helped raise the boy as her own son. Mary’s son Sparky shares the remarkable story of faith, forgiveness, adoption, and family that held the Sparks family together through decades of hardship.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your stories. |
| 0:37.6 | Send them to our American Stories.com. |
| 0:40.6 | They're some of our favorites. |
| 0:42.0 | And now we bring you our Women of True Grit series. |
| 0:44.8 | Our friend Edie Hand has come across many women whose stories of hardship, character, and perseverance |
| 0:51.5 | caused her to write a book called Women of True Grit. |
| 0:55.5 | Now, Edy is bringing some of those women along with many others to our airwaves. |
| 1:00.1 | Today, Edy brings us the story of Mary Sparks. |
| 1:03.8 | A tale of faith and family is told by her son Sparky. |
| 1:08.3 | Here's Eadie. |
| 1:16.2 | Music son, Sparky. Here's Edie. Here's Edie. Mary Sparks exhibited strength of conviction throughout her life. |
| 1:21.5 | But oddly enough, it all started with an affair, a stolen baby, and her Catholic faith. |
| 1:28.3 | Here's your son, Sparkyy to recount his mother's tale. |
| 1:33.3 | I guess the time to start this story is in 1943. |
| 1:38.3 | My mother fell in love with a married man who was about to ship off to the war. |
| 1:45.0 | Mary couldn't bear the idea of losing her love, |
| 1:48.0 | so she attempted to join the Women's Army Corps, |
| 1:51.0 | a wax for short. |
| 1:53.0 | And when she joined the wax, she took her physical |
| 1:57.0 | and found out she was pregnant. |
| 2:00.0 | My grandfather, great police gentleman, he shipped her to Chicago to a home for unwed mothers |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.