- P & Q -
Return to Williamson
County
Authors
Parker, William James
Parton, Dolly
Rebecca
Paschall, Edwin Pavleje, John
Peach,
Bill
Pearson, Sela
Serenity
Pelletier, Cathie
Pennell Joe E., Jr.
Perkins,
Cris
Perkins, Theresa Green Erwin
Perutelli,
Marion Bolick
Pewitt, Lyn Sullivan
Phillips, Bill R.
Phillips, Lynn
Phillips, Philip Edward
Pinson, Richard D.
Place, Michelle Nicole
Potts, Helen Sawyer
Provine, Harriet T.
Provine, Robert C., Jr.
Provine, William B
Pruett, Jeannie
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County
Authors
Parker,
William James (1857 -
1897)
Son
of an Arkansas physician, William James Parker attended Nashville Medical
School. He married and returned to Arkansas to intern with his father.
Interested in being a writer, he wrote articles on various subjects. He also
created names for his daughters from literary characters and from interesting
combinations of syllables. For example, Trula was a name created from the words
“true love.” In the late 1880’s, learning that Dr. Byrn in Beechville was ready
to retire, Dr. Parker moved his wife and two girls to the corner of Beech Creek
Road and Hillsboro Pike where they lived and he had his office in the same
house. Although choosing a country practice, Dr. Parker maintained his
associations with several professional organizations and continued to write. He
was especially interested in philosophy. He made a house call in April, 1897,
rode home in a heavy rainstorm, contracted pneumonia, and died in a few days. He
left three little girls and his young wife who was pregnant with his son.
-
–The Human
Soul: Its Origin and Analysis, 1888
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Parton,
Dolly Rebecca
(1946-
)
Dolly Parton was born into a large
family in
Sevier
County. After finishing high school, she went
to Nashville and began her singing career. For
several years she teamed with Porter Waggoner, but later went solo and became
one of the most popular singers in
America. She has written lyrics for more than
3,000 songs and appeared in several feature films. Parton has lived in
Williamson
County for many years.
-
–Coat of Many Colors,
1994
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–Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business,
1994
-
–Just the Way I Am, 1979
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Paschall,
Edwin (1799-1869)
Edwin Paschall came to
Williamson
County from
Virginia in 1850 and taught at
Union
Academy in Arrington. He and his wife, Harriet
Hilliard, and several children lived in Arrington.
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Pavleje, John (1953- )
John Pavleje
grew up in
West
Allis,
Wisconsin, and lived in various places throughout
the country as he developed his business leadership skills. His career started
at nineteen in fast food restaurant management. He worked for the next twenty
years in various printing plants with Deluxe Check Printers, which sent him to
Nashville in 1988 to start a new plant. He has
been living in
Williamson
County ever since. In 1998, he started his
leadership-consulting firm, a move that led logically to his book.
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Peach, Bill
Bill Peach was reared in the
community of
Boston in
Williamson
County and has spent most of his life in
retailing. For many years, he and his wife, Emily, have owned and operated Pigg
& Peach, a men’s clothing store on
Main Street in
Franklin. After being in and out of college for
34 years, he received a bachelor of university studies degree from
Middle
Tennessee
State
University in 1988. His play is a study of confrontation
and reconciliation between generations with different views of time, religion,
and patriotism. In 1995 he published the memoirs of an eight-year-old growing
up in the community of
Boston.
-
–Random Thoughts, Left and Right, 1998
-
–The South Side of
Boston, 1995
-
–To Think as a Pawn (play), 1990
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Pearson, Sela
Serenity (1952- )
Sela Pearson was born and educated
in
Brooklyn,
New York. She earned a B.S. Degree in Community
Health from St.
Joseph’s
College and became a licensed practical nurse. She relocated to
Tennessee in 1991 and in 1996 developed A-KAN-KE
Creations, through which she offers storytelling, poetry, and motivational
speaking. Pearson has published poetry
and articles in several journals and has been an active speaker and storyteller
throughout Middle Tennessee for which she won awards and commendations.
-
–The Magic of Peace, 1996
-
–Sela’s
Sounds of Silence, 1995
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Pelletier, Cathie
The author of highly acclaimed
novels, Cathie Pelletier has also written poetry, a children’s book in collaboration
with Skeeter Davis, numerous songs recorded by well-known performers, and
novels under the pseudonym K. C. McKinnon. With George Stevens Jr. she
co-authored a screenplay based on her novel A
Marriage Made at Woodstock. In 1992, she won the New England Book Award,
and four of her novels have been selected as the “Most Notable Books of the
Year” by the New York Times Book Review.
Pelletier was born and grew up in
Maine. She established Nashville Books, a book
production company which specializes in nonfiction books about country music
and its stars.
-
–The Christmas Note
(with Skeeter
Davis), 1997
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–Beaming Sonny Home, 1996
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–Decision and Other Stories, 1995
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–A Marriage Made at
Woodstock, 1994
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–The Bubble Reputation, 1993
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–The Weight of Winter,
1991
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–Once upon a Time on the Banks, 1989
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–The Funeral Makers, 1986
-
–Widow’s Walk, 1976
As
K.C. McKinnon:
-
–Candles on
Bay
Street,
1998
-
–Dancing at the Harvest Moon, 1997
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Pennell Joe E., Jr. (1939- )
Joe E. Pennell Jr., graduated from
Lambuth
College and
Vanderbilt
University
Divinity
School. From 1988 to 1996, he was senior pastor
at Brentwood
United
Methodist
Church. He was a key member of the Memphis
Conference from 1962 to 1977, and later, as a member of the Tennessee
Conference, he served as chairperson of the Advisory Council of the
Vanderbilt
Divinity
School and as a member of the World Methodist
Council. He then served as a bishop of the Virginia Conference of the
United
Methodist
Church.
-
–From Anticipation to Transfiguration,
1989
-
–The Whisper of Christmas, 1984
-
–A Connectional Community,
1982
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Perkins, Cris
Cris Perkins was born in
Franklin, but began his career in
Memphis in 1989 as a sportswriter for the West Memphis Evening Times. In 1991, he
returned to work at the Review Appeal.
He was named Tennessee Division II Sportswriter of the Year, Columnist of the
Year, and Investigative Reporter of the Year by the Tennessee Sportswriters
Association in 1992 and 1993. While majoring in journalism at
Nicholls
State
University in
Thibodaux,
Louisiana, he worked in the office of sports
information. He has continued to work in the area of sports in several
universities.
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Perkins, Theresa Green
Erwin (1836-1916)
Theresa Green Erwin was born in Todd
County, Kentucky, the youngest of nine children. In 1858 she married Samuel
Fearn Perkins and resided with him at his family home,
Hillside, which was at the intersection of Old
Charlotte Pike and
Old Hillsboro Road. The book she wrote under the pen name
of Terah Ewyn is a fictionalized account of life at
Hillside during the Civil War. Captain Phil is based on her husband’s
younger brother who was in the Confederate cavalry and was later county court
clerk. Yaller Phil is based on a
servant who accompanied his master to battle and later worked as a janitor at
the old Williamson County Bank.
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Perutelli, Marion Bolick (1925 - )
Marion
Perutelli was born and raised in Memphis. She began writing historical fiction
after reading Gone With the Wind, and her stories are set in Memphis. She
is a resident of Brentwood.
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Pewitt, Lyn
Sullivan
Lyn Sullivan Pewitt was born and
reared in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota. She is a graduate of
Macalester
College in
St. Paul. While working at radio station KAUS in
Austin,
Minnesota, she met and married Russel Sullivan of
Franklin. They moved to
Williamson
County in 1962. In addition to rearing four
children, she was active in Pull-Tight Players and the Boy Scouts and Girl
Scouts, and she worked at radio station WAKM. A project for the radio station
led to her book. Following Sullivan’s death in 1985, she met and married Gale
Pewitt, a native of
Franklin, in 1988. Later, they moved to
Napierville,
Illinois.
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Phillips, Bill R.
Bill Phillips is a native Texan, a
graduate of the
University of
Nebraska at
Omaha, and an Air Force veteran. He came to
the Freedom Forum at Vanderbilt in 1994 to write the book cited below, using
his background in both politics and the media to examine the relationship
between the two. His journalistic experience includes work on newspapers in
both California and
Nevada, one of which was awarded a Pulitzer
Prize for editorials based on his writing. His career in politics began when he
worked in a gubernatorial race in
Nevada. He was later assistant campaign manager
in the 1992 Bush/Quayle campaign, became a senior administrator under the first
President Bush, managed the 1988 Republican National Convention, and has been
chief of staff of the Republican National Committee. He has since been chief of
staff of the office of university relations at Vanderbilt and later the Deputy
Mayor in the mayor’s office of
Metropolitan
Davidson
County.
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Phillips,
Lynn
Lynn Phillips, a native of
Lawrence
County, graduated from
Loretto
High School in 1942. He has long been a resident of
Franklin and a member of the Johnson’s
Chapel
Methodist
Church in
Brentwood. Retired from food sales, he found time
to focus on writing poetry, something he began to do at the age of twelve. He
has been a member of the Southern Poets Association and has had pieces
published by them. He has also been active in a local poetry group. Though most
of his poems are romantic in nature, some are humorous and others deal with the
problems of aging.
-
–Sunshine and Shadows,
1994
-
–Memories from the Heart,
1991
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Phillips,
Philip Edward
Philip E. Phillips gives credit for his love of writing to the outstanding teachers he has had over the years, from Belmont University to Vanderbilt University. He was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and grew up in Lebanon, Tennessee, where he was a boarding cadet at Castle Heights Military Academy. He was first introduced to great literature by one of his teachers at CHMA. He is an associate professor of medieval and Renaissance literature at Middle Tennessee State University. His research interests in Roman philosopher Boethius, John Milton, and Edgar Allan Poe have resulted in his published writings. Phillips lives with his wife and son in Franklin.
-
–New Directions in Boethian Studies,
2007
-
–John Milton's Epic Invocations: Converting the Muse,
2000
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Pinson, Richard D. (1949- )
A
native of
Henderson,
Kentucky, Dr. Richard Pinson graduated first in his
class at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1976. He completed his
professional training at the
University of
Pennsylvania and at Vanderbilt. While
practicing medicine since 1980, he has taught at the
University of
Tennessee and at
Baptist
Hospital in
Nashville, as well as helping to
organize Clinical Research Associates. His professional corporation, Well Being
2000, provides personal assistance in health planning, disease prevention, and medical
problem solving.
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Place, Michelle Nicole
With her birth in
Scotland and her childhood in
California,
Michelle Place nevertheless calls Middle
Tennessee home because her family roots are here. Her family returned just
before she began college. She started out in interior design but changed to
English when she realized that she wanted to be a writer like her mother,
Cheryl Zach. In 1997, she married, moved to
Franklin, and began writing professionally.
As
Nicole Byrd (pen name of
Cheryl Zach and
Michelle Place together):
-
–Beauty in Black, 2004
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–Widow in Scarlet, 2003
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–Lady in Waiting, 2002
-
–Dear Impostor,
2001
-
–Robert’s Lady, 2000
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Potts, Helen Sawyer
Helen Potts was born in
Williamson
County and attended local schools. She taught
twenty-seven years in
Tennessee and seven years in
Mississippi. She is responsible for buying the
Edythe Rucker Whitley genealogical collection and donating it to the Williamson
County Public Library. She has been a member of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Williamson
County Historical Society.
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Provine Family
In
1950, the Provine family bought a small farm on
Manley Lane where all lived for several
years before scattering to various academic positions. The farm has remained in
the family, so the members have returned from time to time.
Harriet
T. Provine attended Vanderbilt during her
Williamson
County years, became a research
biologist, and taught at
Harvard
Medical
School.
William B. Provine went to
Grassland
Elementary School. He earned his Ph.D. at the
University of
Chicago in history of science and
has spent his life as a professor of history of science at
Cornell
University,
Ithaca,
NY.
-
–Origins of
Theoretical Population Genetics, 2001
-
–Sewell Wright and
Evolutionary Biology, 1986, 2001
Robert
C. Provine, Jr. attended
Grassland
Elementary School. He earned a Ph.D. at
Harvard
University in music. His interest in Korean music
was a result of two years of military service there. For much of his adult
life, he lived in Durham,
England, where he taught music at the
university. Since August, 2000 he has been professor of music at the
University of
Maryland.
-
–Essays
on Sino-Korean Musicology: Early Sources for Korean Ritual Music, 1988
-
–The Drum Rhythms in Korean Farmers’ Music, 1975
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Pruett, Jeannie
Jeannie Pruett, the well-known
singer and writer of country music, grew up as part of a large family on a
working farm in
Pell
City,
Alabama. For a number of years, she and her
husband have lived in a log house on a horse farm in
Williamson
County. In addition to the two cookbooks listed
that contain narrative, Pruett has written several non-narrated cookbooks.
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Williamson
County
Authors