ASHLAND —
The first thing a visitor noticed upon entering the open house Friday at the Jesse Stuart Foundation was the sound of fiddle and guitar playing traditional Appalachian tunes.
The players were Carl and Buzzy Leming, who live in Florence and drive the three hours to Ashland whenever the foundation holds an important event.
He plays a vintage violin and she plays a rare, custom-made Martin tenor guitar. They both wear polo shirts with the JSF emblem embroidered on them.
Lifetime members of the foundation and members of its board, the Lemings were introduced to the works of Jesse Stuart after Carl had a heart attack in 1992.
While recuperating, he read Stuart’s memoir, “The Year of My Rebirth,” an account of his own heart attack and the fight to regain his health. He had never even heard of Stuart. “I was so impressed with his sheer will to live,” Leming said. “I wanted to read more by him.”
Buzzy bought him another Stuart book, in 1995 they joined the foundation, and Carl kept reading until he’d read everything he could find by Stuart. “I didn’t put his books down until I had read all of them.”
While the Lemings played, local and regional authors chatted up visitors and signed books. The open house marked the 106th birthday of Stuart, who was born in Greenup County, taught school, worked his way through Vanderbilt University, and became one of the best-known writers in America and Kentucky’s poet laureate.
They included Jack Ellis, a retired director of libraries at Morehead State University who has written several books about his and others’ experiences in World War II and the Depression.
“I got into writing books after writing 454 weekly newspaper columns over 11 years, Ellis said. Now 86, he wrote his first book when he was 70.
“I wrote to keep alive the memory of the ones that did not come back,” said Ellis, who served in the Army Air Force in Germany but did not see combat. “I was also a minister so guys would tell me things they’d never tell their families,” he said.
Ed and Lois Weber of Bellefonte came to the open house specifically to meet Ellis and buy his “Missing Christmas,” an account of World War II experiences. “We heard an interview on the radio while we were driving to Lexington and could not stop listening,” Lois Weber said. “I had Ed write down his name and the book. When we saw he was going to be in Ashland we had to be here,” she said.
For writers, the open houses are as enjoyable for the socializing as for selling and signing books, said CEO and senior editor James M. Gifford. “We are bound by our interest in the history and culture of the region,” he said. “In a way, we are all working on the same big project.”
The foundation has a vital role in publishing and preserving regional works that commercial and university presses wouldn’t accept, Gifford said. “Otherwise a lot of important regional history would be lost.”
By preserving the literary work the foundation and its associated authors help to preserve Appalachian history and culture, he said.
Foundation books already are serving as important historical references, he said. Cinematographers, for instance, have called on Ellis for details he can provide on World War II.
It was Stuart’s strength of character that drew in the Lemings. For others it may be nostalgia, a longing for a simpler time when values were clearer, said Edwina Pendarvis, a retired education professor who edits and writes for the foundation.
She believes Stuart’s body of work will endure and continue to find readers. “When I read his stories, I’m always surprised at how real he makes things. The details come to life. The people are so vibrant. I think he’ll be read for centuries.”
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