PEWEE VALLEY, Ky. – One of Kentucky’s most popular writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries will be the focus of a weekend of activities next month in the Oldham County town that served as the setting for most of her fiction.
Annie Fellows Johnston, who portrayed turn-of-the-century life in Pewee Valley in her widely read “Little Colonel” story series, is also the subject of current exhibits at the University of Louisville’s Ekstrom Library, the Oldham County History Center in La Grange and the Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.
Johnston’s “Little Colonel” stories led to a 1935 movie starring Shirley Temple and Lionel Barrymore and also spawned children’s clothing, dolls, games, cards and other merchandise prized by collectors today.
The inspiration for Johnston’s romanticized tales of small town Kentucky life was an 1894 visit to Pewee Valley, where her step-children’s relatives lived. One of Johnston’s young nieces served as the model for the Little Colonel, whose demeanor reflected her former Confederate general grandfather’s military bearing, and the fictional town of Lloydsboro was based on Pewee Valley. Johnston later settled in Pewee Valley and died there in 1929.
Re-enactor Sue Lynn McDaniel will portray Johnston in an event on Friday Feb. 8, 2008 at 7 p.m. at the Oldham County History Center in La Grange, The event includes a cash bar and appetizers, with an admission charge of $13 for history center members and $15 for non-members.
On Saturday Feb. 9, the Little Colonel Players will present “The Little Colonel of Lloydsboro,” a 30-minute play adapted from Johnston’s stories. Show times are 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the Playhouse on Mt. Mercy Drive in Pewee Valley. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children. There will also be tours of historic homes and an appraisal fair.
On Sunday Feb. 10, “The Little Colonel of Lloydsboro” will be presented at 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. The Pewee Valley Fire Department will hold a chili lunch. There will be a gift boutique at the Pewee Valley Women’s Club on both Saturday and Sunday.
A special $25 package on Saturday includes a luncheon featuring recipes of the era, an exhibit of Little Colonel memorabilia, a ticket to “The Little Colonel of Lloydsboro,” and a guided bus tour of sites that appear in the stories.
Bus tours will be offered separately both Saturday and Sunday for $5 per person.
For more information about the Little Colonel events, call the Oldham County History Center at 502-222-0826 or visit www.oldhamcountyhistoricalsociety.org.
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