Cleveland County has been home to numerous authors and journalists. Two men from the county have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize–Hatcher Hughes in 1924 and Jack Cash in 1941.
Harvey Hatcher Hughes was born in Polkville, NC. He became an internationally known playwright and was a member of the faculty of Columbia University from 1912 until his death in 1945. He was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his 1923 play Hell-Bent Fer Heaven. Read more. . .
Wilbur Joseph “Jack” Cash was born in Gaffney, SC, but came of age in Boiling Springs, NC where his mother’s family lived. Jack grew up to become an American journalist known for writing The Mind of the South, a controversial and influential interpretation of the character and history of the American South. Cash was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing in 1941. He did not win, but was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship the same year. A protégé of H. L. Mencken and Alfred A. and Blanche Knopf, Cash suffered throughout his life from depression. Read more. . .
The Radio Television Digital News Association (formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association) has been honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971.
Doug Limerick was born in Shelby and worked an evening shift at WOHS Radio while he was in high school in the early 1960s. He went on to become a news anchor on ABC News Network. He earned numerous awards, including two Edward R. Murrow awards for ABC.
Two Shelby natives became local TV news personalities in Charlotte.
John Carter, a Shelby native, was a news anchor for WBTV in Charlotte.
Barbara White McKay was born in Shelby. She went on to become an author and TV personality on WBTV in Charlotte.
Two Cleveland County men became well known columnists for The Charlotte Observer–Joe Depriest who had been a columnist for The Shelby Daily Star for years, and Kays Gary.
Joe DePriest, Jr. was a talented author and journalist for the Shelby Daily Star for 25 years. In 1990 he joined the Charlotte Observer, covering Gaston County where he had moved. He retired in 2015 having written many, many memorable stories about the people and events of Cleveland and Gaston Counties.
Thomas Frederick Dixon, Jr. gained infamy for authoring three books glorifying the antebellum South. These were The Leopard’s Spots (1902), The Clansman (1905), and The Traitor (1907).
Kays Gary grew up in Fallston, NC. He was a columnist for The Charlotte Observer from 1956 until 1987. He was well known and well loved for his work.
Shelby natives Tom Forney and Ladley Burn cowrote this book along with Matthew C. Bumgarner and R. Douglas Walker; published in 1999.
Pleasant Daniel Gold was a prominent publisher and religious leader in the Primitive Baptist Church.
In 1902, he published Zion’s Landmark and also founded the P. D. Gold Publishing Company. His publishing company issued the Daily Times and the Semi-Weekly Times and was later incorporated as The Wilson Daily Times Publishing Company.
Stanley Everett Green was a Boiling Springs native. He spent time teaching at the Outer Banks and wrote a book about the experience.
Ronald Harrill is an author, historian, and lecturer on the history of Africa and the African people. A native of Shelby, NC, he is the author of Makeda: Queen of Sheba, the 2013 International Book Awards winner for Children’s Picture Book and The Children of Genesis. Both books are available for purchase at Amazon.
Dr. John Ida “Bobbie” Roberts Jiggetts was a mental health social worker and a scholar of Judaism. She was the daughter of John Wesley and Ida Roberts Roberts.
Noel T. Manning, II worked in broadcast journalism for a decade or more. He is currently serving as Associate Vice President of Communications and Marketing for Gardner-Webb University. Below is a sample of his work– a short documentary on the life of Earl Owensby.
Martha Mason was a legendary woman of great fortitude. She lived in Lattimore in an iron lung for 61 of her 71 years. Her dream was to become a writer–which she did, in 2003, with the publication of Breath: A Lifetime in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung.
C. A. ”Pete” McKnight led The Charlotte Observer to national distinction as editor for more than two decades.
He was a Shelby native and Davidson College honor graduate.
John Proctor McKnight was born in Shelby, NC and became a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press. He joined the AP in the Charlotte, NC bureau in 1930 and served in Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and Italy before leaving the news service in 1949 to write the book, The Papacy: A New Appraisal. He became a foreign service officer in the US Information Agency in 1951 and was posted in Rome, South Korea, Brazil, and Argentina. He stayed with the agency until his retirement in 1969 and had sabbaticals at the Brookings Institute in 1962 and the National War College in 1967 to 68. In 1983 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Davidson College.
Ron Rash was born in 1953 in Chester, SC but grew up in Boiling Springs, NC. He is an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and poems.
Shelbians Sandra Schenck and Richard Kendrick Dedmon had success with the publication of a children’s book in 1974 titled Frances the Pig. Richard authored the book, Sandy illustrated it.
May Dixon Thacker was born in Shelby. She was the daughter of Rev. Thomas and Amanda McAfee Dixon and sister of the infamous Thomas Dixon, Jr. Mrs. Thacker was the author of The Strength of the Weak and served as editor of the Gaston B. Means book, The Strange Death of President Harding.
| Other Cleveland County Authors | title/genre |
| Jim Booker | A Trail of Tears, children’s book |
| Dr. Delia Dixon Carroll | magazine writer |
| Dr. Larry Champion | book on Shakespearian criticism |
| Rev. A. C. Dixon | magazine articles, sermon books |
| Robert Early | The Jealous Ear, a novel |
| Charles Heath | “You Can Save America,” essays |
| Jane Logan | The Very Nearest Room, a novel |
| David Zero Newton | Lingering Moments, poems |
| Bill Reynolds | A Thorn in Violets, poems |
| Harold B. Spangler | Mirrors of What Can Be, poems |
| Charleen Whisnant | Editor of the “Red Clay Reader” series |
| Melvin L. “Corn Cracker” White | A History of the Life of Amos Owens, the Noted Blockader, of Cherry Mountain, NC |
Publications of Cleveland County Historians
P. Cleveland “Cleve” Gardner was a Cleveland County historian and genealogist. Many of his papers are stored in the loose files cabinet in the genealogy room at the Eugenia Young Library in Shelby.
Robert Sarratt Gidney was a devoted and meticulous county historian. He was instrumental in the publication of Our Heritage: A History of Cleveland County.
Grace Rutledge Hamrick was a Shelby journalist and author of two biographies–Miss Fay and Miss Bess. These two ladies were first ladies of North Carolina and were from Shelby.
Bonnie Mauney Summers was the daughter of William A. and Candace Miller Mauney. She wrote the book, Kings Mountain: Her Background and Beginning, (About 1780-1920). It was published in 1972.
Lee Beam Weathers was the editor and publisher of The Shelby Daily Star from 1911 until his death in 1958. He also served four terms in the North Carolina Senate and is considered by some historians as a member of the “Shelby Dynasty.”
Arcadia Publishing Company specializes in local and regional history books. A number of Cleveland County authors have published with them. They are:
Anita Price Davis and James M. Walker; published in 2005.
Still available for purchase on Amazon.
Cleveland County Soil and Water Conservation District; published in 2016. Still available for purchase on Amazon.
Sharon Stack and Stephanie Walsh; published in 2013. Still available for purchase on Amazon.
Barry E. Hambright and U. L. “Rusty” and Marie Farrow Patterson collectively published six books from 2000 to 2012. These are still available for purchase on Amazon.
CC Historians of Local Families and Institutions
| author/s | topic |
| Aaron R. Beam | Sketches of the Life of John Teter Beam and his 15 Children, 1898 |
| Carl Beam | The Beam Family |
| Paula Hord Dedmon | The Hords of Harris Creek, 2020, five generations of the Hord family of Cleveland County |
| Dr. Francis B. Dedmond | Lengthened Shadows, a history of Gardner-Webb College |
| Robert Lee Durham | Since I Was Born, autobiography |
| James Carson Elliott | A Southern Soldier Boy, a memoir |
| Grace Rutledge Hamrick and Reuben Hubbard Hamrick | History of the First Baptist Church of Shelby, 1969 |
| Grace Rutledge Hamrick | History of the Shelby Women’s Club and History of the Shelby Kiwanis Club |
| Oliver P. Hamrick | At the Crossroads |
| Dr. Garland Hendricks | Biography of a Country Church |
| Shirley Brackett Hord | New Prospect Baptist Church, 150 Years of History; 1854-2004 |
| Stephen C. Jones | The Hamrick Generations: Being a Genealogy of the Hamrick Family, 1920 |
| John R. Logan | History of the Broad River and Kings Mtn. Bapt. Assoc. 1800-1882 |
| Theresa Spangler Lowe | The Spanglers: Jonathan Spangler, his father Absalom, and their Descendants |
| Fred A. Mauney | The Saints at Elizabeth: Their First One Hundred Years, 1982 |
| Chivous C. Padgett | History of the Kings Mountain Baptist Association |
| Sally Hunt Royster | The Historic Mount Harmony Church & Cemetery, 1791-2022 |
| Elizabeth Hoyle Rucker | The Genealogy of Pieter Heyl and His Descendants, 1938 |
| Dr. W. Wyan Washburn | Canaan In Carolina, biography of Rev. John W. Suttle |
| Judge Edwin Yates Webb | Speech to the House of Representatives on the Battle of Kings Mountain, 1906 |
Cleveland County History 