so kids were abandoned at 7 by their parents in north carolina?

The story had several plot holes given the time it was supposed to have been. In the 50's and 60's you had truant officers and kids of that age wouldn't have been allowed to avoid school between the age of 7 and 16, the dad would have been given a fine which given how he acted would have resulted in the kids being beaten and forced to go to school.

yeah and why did none of the sisters or brothers took her with them and why did they never came back to check on her? Makes no sense

I had an uncle who ran away from home at the age of 12 and he survived in society somehow without parental supervision. He was from the hillbilly hills of Kentucky back in the 30s and 40s and he told me it wasn't uncommon for kids from abusive homes to split at a young age much earlier than 16.