Frances Boyd Calhoun (née Boyd; December 25, 1867 – June 8, 1909) was an American writer and teacher in Tennessee. She authored the children's book Miss Minerva and William Green Hill (1909), which has been a publishing success and has gone through more than fifty printed editions.[1] She died four months after its publication.[2]
Frances Boyd Calhoun | |
|---|---|
| Born | Frances Boyd December 25, 1867 Mecklenburg County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | June 8, 1909 |
| Burial place | Mumford Cemetery in Covington, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Other names | Frannie Boyd |
| Occupation(s) | Author, teacher |
| Spouse | George Barret Calhoun |
Biography
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Frances Boyd was born on December 25, 1867, in Mecklenburg County, Virginia.[3][1] Her grandfather was a prominent land owned in Occoneechee (now Occoneechee State Park) in Virginia.[4] In childhood she lived in Warrenton, North Carolina, for two years, before moving in 1880 with her family to Covington, Tennessee.[1][5] She graduated from Tipton Female Academy (also known as Tipton Female Seminary) in 1885.[1][3]
Her father William Townes Boyd was a newspaper publisher and worked for The Covington Leader, and she wrote for his paper.[5] In 1903, she married George Barret Calhoun, and he died a year later in 1904.[3] For seven years she taught at the local Covington public schools, before she quit due to chronic illness.[1][3] She was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy (now United Daughters of the Confederacy), and at some point was a chapter president.[4]
She authored Miss Minerva and William Green Hill (1909), a children's book published by Reilly and Britton (now McGraw-Hill) that became a classic of Southern fiction.[6] The book has a few prominent characters including a spindly old maid named Miss Minerva; her suitor the Major, an obese former Confederate States Army veteran; her nephew "Billy" Hill; and Billy's various friends, African American characters.[1] The depictions of African Americans have them speaking in dialect. The story was said to be based on Calhoun's young next door neighbor of the same name, William Green Hill.[7]
Calhoun also had her poems published. Sequels to her book including Billy and the Major (1918) were written by Emma Speed Sampson.[6]
She died on June 8, 1909, at age 41,[1] and is buried in Mumford Cemetery in Covington. Calhoun never got to see her books successes.[1][4] A historical marker in Covington by the Tennessee Historical Commission commemorates her life.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h Flora, Joseph M.; Vogel, Amber (2006-06-21). "Frances Boyd Calhoun (1867–1909)". Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary. LSU Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-8071-4855-6.
- ^ Wellman, Manly Wade (November 24, 2002). The County of Warren, North Carolina, 1586-1917. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9780807854723 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c d Stringer, Bella Katz (October 8, 2017). "Calhoun, Frances Boyd". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
- ^ a b c "Frances Boyd Calhoun". Los Angeles Times. 26 September 1909. p. 48. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2023-05-03 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Frances Boyd Calhoun (1867—1909)". Oxford Reference. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
- ^ a b Flora, Joseph M.; Vogel, Amber (21 June 2006). Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807148556.
- ^ "Obituary for William Green Hill". The Commercial Appeal. May 5, 1964. Retrieved 2023-05-03 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Frances Boyd Calhoun Historical Marker". Historical Marker Database (HMDB).
External links
edit- Findagrave entry, has image of grave