1978
Ora Blackmun

Ora Blackmun (1892 – 1984), the Asheville author of Western North Carolina: Its Mountains and Its People and A Spire in the Mountains received the award in 1978 for her publications. Published in 1977, Western North Carolina is a narrative history of the Southern Appalachian Mountains up to 1880. Ora Blackmun depicts the stories of native Cherokee and Sequoyah people and pioneers such as William Bartram, Daniel Boone, Bishops Spangenberg and Asbury, and Zeb Vance. Ora Blackmun became intensely interested in the history of Western North Carolina, and spoke, lectured, and wrote extensively about her adopted region.