Cid Ricketts Sumner (September 27, 1890 – October 15, 1970) was a novelist from the United States whose works inspired several Hollywood films. She also taught English at a Jackson, Mississippi, high school and French at Millsaps College. Among Sumner's books is Tammy out of Time (1948), which inspired the Tammy film series and television series. Biography Sumner was born Bertha Louise Ricketts in Brookhaven, Mississippi on September 27, 1890. She was the daughter of Bertha Burnley and Robert Scott Ricketts. Her father was a professor at Millsaps College, and her mother and grandmother provided a homeschooled education for her. She later on received the nickname "Cid" from her parents because of her placid nature. She received a BS from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi in 1909 and an MA from Columbia University in 1910. She continued postgraduate work at Columbia from 1910 to 1914, then enrolled in medical school at Cornell University. She attended only one year of medical school before marrying one of her professors, James B. Sumner, on July 10, 1915 and dropping out of school. They had four children and she focused on raising her children until they were old enough to go to school and handle themselves. It was at this point that she started writing her books. After her divorce with James, she taught English at a High School in Jackson, and taught French at Millsaps College, where her father taught and she also attended. Her first novel, Ann Singleton, was published in 1938, but it was not very popular. Sumner's career took off when her second book, Quality, was published in 1946. A novel that opposed segregation, it was about a light-skinned black woman, who could pass as a white woman, practiced as a nurse up North, fell in love with a white man, and moved back South. The theme was very controversial, and the story was adapted into the 1949 film Pinky, starring Jeanne Crain. The story caused so many disputes that some southern theaters refused to play it because of its progressive nature a decade before the Civil Rights Movement. The film is "often referred to as one of Hollywood's first interracial films", according to the Mississippi Encyclopedia. Tammy series Her third book is probably her most well known novel. Tammy out of Time, was published in 1948. This novel was adapted to film in 1957 in Tammy and the Bachelor,