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Local Authors |
| 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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, E. Gale (1932 - ) | |
E. Gale Pewitt grew up in Brentwood, Tennessee, where he attended Franklin Elementary School and Battle Ground Academy. He later became involved in technical and scientific matters becoming a research physicist. His writing career began when he visited St. Albans, Vermont, and became fascinated by the Confederate raid on the town. Gale now divides his time between Naperville, Illinois, and Franklin, Tennessee. .
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| Pewitt, Lyn Sullivan | |
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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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| Power, Elizabeth (1953 - ) | |
Elizabeth was born and reared in rural Caldwell County, North Carolina. Her writing interest was stimulated through her high school curriculum at North Carolina School of the Arts. After completion of her B.A. at University of North Carolina-Greensboro and M.Ed. from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in Human Resources Development, she started her own company, “providing writing and instructional design services to companies in the private and public sector world wide.” She writes Appalachian “porch stories,” poetry, and screen plays. Due to her interest in the workings of disenfranchisement, she has contributed chapters to books of studies and has made video tapes accompanied by booklets in the broad area of psychology. She is an internationally known speaker, facilitator, and trainer. She has been published across a wide spectrum of disciplines and topics. .
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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.
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| Pruett, Jeanne | |
Jeanne 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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| Putala, Randall (1954 - ) | |
Randall Putala was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. His interest in writing developed from his many years in the advertising field. He has worked as production, marketing and advertising managers in prestigious companies from New York City to Dallas, Texas and most recently in Nashville, Tennessee. He is president and founder of Strategic Direct Marketing, a multi-million dollar business serving clients in over 30 states in a wide range of industries. He lives in Brentwood, Tennessee.
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