Author. Kentucky-born novelist who portrayed the erosion of traditional rural life in modern, industrial America in unpretentious works like her 1954 bestseller “The Dollmaker,” about a strong-willed country-woman’s struggle to retain her dignity and values in a wartime urban housing project.  Family links:  Parents:  Elias Thomas Simpson (1871 – 1929)  Mollie Jane Denney Simpson (1877 – 1964)  Spouse:  Harold Bernard Arnow (1908 – 1985)*  Children:  Infant Daughter of Harold & Harriette Arnow*  Denney Abel Arnow (1939 – 1939)* *Calculated relationship