| by the book |
Unexpected History
A look at Lake Country celebrities we never knew.
A
STORY BY CHIP R . BELL
ABOVE: The music of Blues Hall of Famer and
Greensboro native Sonny Terry has been featured in
major motion pictures, including ‘The Color Purple,’
based on the book by Georgia Writers Hall of Fame
inductee, Alice Walker.
LEFT: Putnam County’s Lucius Q.C. Lamar II served
as U.S. Secretary of Interior under President Grover
Cleveland and later as a Supreme Court Justice.
A treasure of a community
is its heritage.
Roots give a community a sense of stability
and a legacy of substance. Our lives are made
richer through reflection far more than through
anticipation. As Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian
Will Durant wrote, “Most of us spend too
much time on the last 24 hours and too little on
the last 6,000 years.”
The Lake Country has a storied and unexpected
history. Our superstars have appropriately
had their share of limelight. We commemorate
writers like Alice Walker, Raymond Andrews,
Joel Chandler Harris, Philip Lee Williams, and
WINTER 2021 | LAKE OCONEE LIVING 15