Jerry Vickery and Johnny V. Hester to sign their new book at the Pickens County Museum Thursday, January 22, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., author, Jerry Vickery will sign his book "The Forgotten Society of the Keowee River Valley," in the LaVonne Nalley Piper Auditorium at the Pickens County Museum. The public is invited to meet Jerry Vickery and Johnny Hester during this book signing.

Written by Oconee native and long-time Easley Progress owner and editor, Jerry Vickery, "The Forgotten Society of the Keowee River Valley," is the biography of Johnny V. Hester. For decades the Hester family was part of a group of sharecroppers who worked long hours each day under the hot southern sun to eke out an existence from the rich bottom land of the Keowee River valley.

Johnny Hester and his family rarely left their community except to deliver cotton to the gin. Johnny’s stories help us understand this area as it was seen by some of the people who helped form it. There are stories of hardship and loneliness balanced with love of family and hope. When asked about these "hard times", Johnny, who now lives in Easley, says "we just had to learn to rise above them".

Author, Jerry Vickery describes his work, which includes a wonderful collection of photographs as "showing how humor was used to handle such hard times". Vickery says "Hester, who is in his late 60’s, is blessed with a photographic memory and recalls with great detail the ups and downs of his life – the impact of government on sharecropping society – and how Duke Energy changed it all . . .forever."

Today, ninety percent of the land where Johnny grew up and the setting for these stories are at the bottom of Lake Keowee. But whether you were born here or have just moved to this community; all who read "The Forgotten Society of the Keowee River Valley," gain a better understanding of an important group of people who once called the valley home.

Bring a copy of "The Forgotten Society of the Keowee River Valley," that you have already purchased to be signed or purchase one at The Museum Shop that evening for $16.00. This program is part of the museum’s continuing effort to provide a variety of entertaining and educational programming for the community and is funded in part by a donation from Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co., Inc. The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is located at 307 Johnson Street inPickens. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 9a-5p, Thursday 9a-7:30p, and Saturday 9a-4:30p. For additional information call 864.898.5963.