Who is Elsie Lavender Hickham from Rocket Boys: A Memoir and what is their importance? Rocket_Boys English & Literature Elsie Lavender Hickham | Rocket Boys: A Memoir

Elsie Lavender is the wife of Homer Hickham, Sr. and the mother of Sonny and Jim Hickham. She dreams of a home on the beach in Florida while creating a home for her husband and two boys. She is a strong advocate for her second son, Sonny, and tells him that he is different from the time he is a small child. When Sonny blows up her rose garden fence with his first rocket, a flash light fueled by cherry bomb powder, Elsie sees Sonny's rocket-building aspirations as his ticket to a future outside of Coalwood and the mine. She tells her son that she believes he can build a rocket, that his father does not, and begs her son to prove his father wrong. She periodically tells Sonny, "Just, don't blow yourself up," and consistently offers him inspiration and support and provides kitchen utensils and items, which Sonny uses to create and test rocket fuel in the basement of their home.