Southern Authors Expo

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 [email protected]. 

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.