Press Release

Do you want some good reading material for the coming fall and winter months or are you
looking to learn more about local history? If so, then make plans to attend the Southern Authors
Expo!

The “Southern Authors Expo” will be held on Saturday, September 13th, 2025, from 10:00 a.
m. to 4:00 p. m., at the Johnston Genealogical Research Center, 405 Calhoun Street, Johnston,
SC. Attendees will meet award-winning Southern authors: Dr. Walter Curry, Jr., Ms. Patricia G.
McNeely, Ms. Alexia Jones Helsley, Ms. Karen Stokes, Ms. Aliene Humphries, Mr. Marion F.
Sturkey, Mr. Scott Jones, and Ms. Beth Francis. They will be on hand to educate visitors about
their field(s) of interest and sell/sign their books.
There will also be other venders and organizations, including Mr. Lee Burton from Battery
Street Books, in Columbia, SC, Mr. LaBruce Lucas from Southern Historical Press, in
Greenville, SC, Edgefield County Historical Society, Augusta Genealogical Society, and Beech
Island Historical Society.
The “Southern Authors Expo” is sponsored by Old Edgefield District Genealogical Society
(OEDGS). This event is open and free to the public! For more information, please contact Tonya
Guy at 803-991-0492 or OEDGS85@gmail.com. You may also visit our website at OEDGS.org.

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Meet the Authors

Dr. Walter B. Curry, Jr.
Dr. Walter B. Curry, Jr. is a native of Orangeburg, South Carolina. He obtained a bachelor’s
degree in political science and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. In 2018, he established
Renaissance Publications LLC, a self-publishing venture dedicated to producing works that
highlight African American history through the lens of ancestry. Dr. Curry has published two
award winning books, The Thompson Family: Untold Stories from the Past (1830-1960), and
The Awakening: The Seawright-Ellison Family Saga, Vol.1, A Narrative History. Both books
consist of stories that covers the lineage of Dr. Curry’s ancestry from slavery, the Civil War, the
Reconstruction Era, and family life in Aiken, Barnwell, Orangeburg, and Richland Counties,
South Carolina. Dr. Curry is the Author-In-Residence at the Aiken Center for the Arts and an
esteemed presenter for the Speakers Bureau of the South Carolina Humanities. He has received
numerous accolades for his work and service. Dr. Curry also serves as member of the South
Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum Commission, Board of Advisors of the
Friends of Charleston National Parks, and the South Carolina Arts Directory. He currently has
two new books that have been released this year, Dr. Matilda Evans: South Carolina’s Medical
Pioneer and South Carolina African American Confederate Pensioners.

Patricia “Pat” McNeely
Professor Emerita Pat McNeely taught writing and reporting in the University of South Carolina
College of Journalism for 33 years. Before joining the faculty, she was a reporter and editor for
The Greenville News, The State and The Columbia Record. In addition to her latest book, Roots,
Recipes and Roaming Ireland, she has written eleven other books, including Historic South
Carolina Ghosts and Legends; Elizabeth & Ann Timothy: America’s first female journalists in
Colonial and Revolutionary War Times; Henry Timrod: a life of sorrow and song; Sherman’s
Flame and Blame Campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas and the burning of Columbia;

Lincoln, Sherman, Davis and The Lost Confederate Gold; John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson and
the Petticoat Affair; Eyewitnesses to General Sherman’s Campaign through South Carolina.
Handwritten Recipes and Memories from America’s First Families; Palmetto Press: A History of
South Carolina’s Newspapers; South Carolina Dances with Isabel Whaley Sloan; and Knights of
the Quill: Confederate Correspondents and their Civil War Reporting.
Alexia Jones Helsley
Alexia Jones Helsley is a Senior Instructor in History and serves as University Archivist for USC
Aiken. She teaches South Carolina, Ancient, Medieval and Public History. Prior to joining
USCA, Helsley worked as an archivist for the SC Department of Archives and History. The
author of several books on South Carolina and regional history, The History Press will publish
her latest, Rebecca Motte in the American Revolution [tentative title] in 2026. Other publications
include: A History of North Carolina Wine: from Scuppernong to Syrah, Wicked Edisto: the
Dark Side of Eden, and The Lost History of Aiken County. Helsley also contributed requested
chapters to South Carolina Women: their Lives and Times, the South Carolina Encyclopedia,
Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, and Recovering the Piedmont Past, II.
Recipient of the SC Governor’s Archives Award, the SCDAR Bobby Gilmer Moss Award, as
well as a lifetime achievement award from the SC Archival Association, Helsley is a former
president of SC Historical Association, a board member of the Nineteenth Century Studies
Association, president of the Pace Society of America, and chairs the SC Old Exchange
Commission.

Karen Stokes
Karen Stokes is an archivist at the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston, and has
worked with historical manuscripts for over 30 years. She is the author of numerous non-fiction
books including South Carolina Civilians in Sherman’s Path, The Immortal 600, A Confederate
Englishman, Confederate South Carolina, Days of Destruction, A Legion of Devils: Sherman in
South Carolina, and Fortunes of War: The Adventures of a German Confederate. Her works of
historical fiction include Honor in the Dust and The Immortals. Her most recent collection of
Confederate letters is An Everlasting Circle: Letters of the Haskell Family of Abbeville, South
Carolina, 1861-1865, which includes the correspondence of seven brothers who served in the
Confederate Army with great distinction. Mrs. Stokes’ newest book is Bessie in Love and War:
Selections from the Letters and Diaries of Elizabeth Allston Pringle.

Aliene Shields Humphries
Aliene Shields Humphries has degrees from Columbia College in Special Education and Public
Speaking/Drama, and she worked at the South Carolina Department of Education and also taught
students with Special Needs. After retiring from the “formal” education system, Ms. Humphries
continued her passion as an educator by promoting Life-Long Learning. In 2010, she authored
her first book, The Legacy Of A Common Civil War Soldier. This book is based on the letters
written by her great-grandfather, Private Thomas Marion Shields during 1861-1865. Presently,
she is promoting her latest book, The Importance of South Carolina in the American Revolution.
This new work includes 63 sites, plus the new Revolutionary War Visitor Center (in Camden,
South Carolina). These sites deserve to be visited, promoted, preserved, and interpreted for us to
appreciate. She is hoping to bring more awareness of the important role South Carolina played in
helping the 13 colonies become the United States of America, independent from England. The book includes much more information about our great state during this time. Ms. Humphries
hopes to communicate the importance of learning more about ourselves and own family history.

Marion F. Sturkey
Marion F. Sturkey is a native of Plum Branch, South Carolina. As an adult, he became a Captain
in the U. S. Marine Corps and served as a combat-assault helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Later, he
became a Commercial Pilot for the oil and gas industry. Still later, he worked as a Manager at
AT&T for 25 years. For ten of those years, he was a guest instructor at Bell Communications
Research. At age 76, Mr. Sturkey still works full time researching military history. He has
written and published 15 books, including Plum Branch: Heaven in South Carolina; Bald Eagle
of Edgefield: Martin W. Gary; Casualites of War; Military Monuments and Memorials in South
Carolina; and Gone But Not Forgotten: Cemetery Plots and Verbatim Transcripts of . . . 112
Cemeteries . . . in McCormick County, South Carolina.

Scott Jones
Scott Jones is a native of Columbia, South Carolina, where he studied history and government at
the University of South Carolina. A former Emergency Medical Technician and Night Courtesy
Officer at a local retirement community, Scott has long been fascinated by stories from the past,
especially the Reconstruction era. Union Soldier, Confederate Bride is his first novel, a work of
historical fiction set in the South during the turbulent years following the Civil War.

Beth Self Francis
Beth Self Francis is a direct descendant of Charles Hammond, and has had a long and
compelling interest in the family. Over the years, she has collected much information on the
Hammonds. She spent the last three years compiling and organizing this material and is pleased
to present her work in her new book, Of Planter and Patriots. This is a record of the Colonial and
Revolutionary Hammond family of the Old Edgefield District, South Carolina, who descend
from the three brothers, LeRoy Hammond (1729-1790), John Hammond (1722-1781), and
Charles Hammond (1716-1794) who came to South Carolina before and during the American
Revolution. Over the years, many family members and other historians have written about this
Hammond family, but no definitive history has ever been published.  While Mrs. Francis was not
able to include everything written about the Hammonds, it is hoped that her book is enough to
entice the reader to find more. Some of the information found in Of Planter and Patriots is old
and includes stories passed down from generation to generation, and these accounts have often
been included in newspaper articles and other writings over the years. This publication also
includes a compilation of historical facts and traditional family lore. Mrs. Francis is a member of
a number of organizations, including the DAR, and is the current president of the Edgefield
County Historical Society.