Kathy Jo had her first drink when she was 8 years old because she wanted to get drunk like the grown ups, and found herself in her hometown jail at age 12 for public drinking. She refers to herself as a "blackout drinker" and craved the feeling she got after having a third drink. She recognized fairly early on she was different, but having grown up in a small town, didn't know being a lesbian was a possibility. Kathy Jo become sober on January 4th, 1980.