she told how shed been raised in rural louisiana by kind and generous parentsher father a tractor salesman and her mother a teachers aide once she was old enough to go to school ; how her curiosity and will to learn had earned her a decent education despite the limits of the public schools she attended , and a scholarship to attend louisiana state university ; how shed met the love of her life in her freshman roommate at lsua young black woman named jocelyn oatesand followed jocelyn to austin , texas where jocelyn earned a degree in public policy while she took a job as an ems dispatcher for the city of austin and had since worked her way up to supervisor while joce got a job in the citys planning department .