The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with Carolyn Hooker, author of Leaving Edgefield: Carrie Butler’s Story, on Thursday, February 26, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., at the Conroy Center, 601 Bladen St., Beaufort. With an introduction by Conroy Center acting director Ginger Dyer Olszewski and personal remarks by author Susan Zurenda, this free event will be presented in partnership with Evening Post Books, the book publishing division of Evening Post Publishing, owners of the Post and Courier. Please join us for discussion, wine, and nibbles. Books will be available for sale and signing.
ABOUT LEAVING EDGEFIELD: CARRIE BUTLER’S STORY
Leaving Edgefield: Carrie Butler’s Story is an historical fiction novel set in 1948 in the poverty ward of Philadelphia General Hospital where the main character, Carrie Butler, the mother of Senator Strom Thurmond’s secret bi-racial daughter, is dying of renal failure at age thirty-eight while, at the same time, Thurmond is running as the Dixiecrat segregationist candidate for President of the United States. Carrie has asked Mrs. Sadie Alexander, a prominent Black Philadelphia attorney whom she met in her job as a seamstress, to document her story to ensure that Thurmond will keep the promise he made to pay for their daughter’s education. Carrie Butler’s transformation from a powerless child to a courageous woman who, by the end of her life, makes a way to leave a legacy for her daughter is an inspiring example of human resilience and determination.
Very little verifiable information is available about Carrie Butler. However, census records housed at the Edgefield Historical Society, her family’s birth and death
Novelist Carolyn Hooker
records on Ancestry.com, as well as bits and pieces about her in scholarly articles available online provide at least some basic information about her. Also, many books and articles about Thurmond reference Carrie Butler. Based on these sources, the novel pieces together the events of her life and imagines the interaction that occurred between her and Thurmond.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolyn W. Hooker taught English for over thirty years on both the high school and college level, predominantly at Spartanburg Community College. A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, she received a B.S. Degree in Education and an M.A. Degree in English from the University of South Carolina. It was at USC graduate school where she developed a love for literature under such notable professors as Donald J. Greiner and James Dickey.
She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and two dogs. Leaving Edgefield: Carrie Butler’s Story is her debut novel.
