'The French Broad' Author Dykeman Dies

Author Wilma Dykeman, 79, is shown at her home in Asheville, N.C., in this file photo from May 28, 1999, photo. Dykeman, who chronicled the people of Appalachia and the land that shaped them in 18 novels and nonfiction books, died Friday at the age of 86, a family friend and spokeswoman said Saturday, Dec 23, 2006. (AP Photo/Alan Marler-File) (Alan Marler - AP)

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Wilma Dykeman, who chronicled the people of Appalachia and the land that shaped them in 18 novels and nonfiction books, has died. She was 86.

Dykeman had been in failing health since fracturing a hip two months ago and was living in a hospice in her hometown when she died Friday, family spokeswoman Karen Cragnolin said.

Her first book, "The French Broad" in 1955, proved to be deeply influential on Appalachian writers and was described by one critic as a love poem to the region and its people.

The book was part of the acclaimed "Rivers of America Series," fusing history, environmental activism and folklore in a way that inspired other authors from the region to look to their heritage for subject matter.

"I think it would be hard to overestimate her importance," said Robert Morgan, a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and author of the best-seller "Gap Creek."

"Though I grew up in Henderson County on a little farm, I had never been a student of the region until I read the book," he said. "After that I started thinking more and more about the history, the Cherokee Indians, the geology and that type of thing."

Dykeman grew up in the Beaverdam community of Buncombe County. She attended Biltmore Junior College in Asheville and Northwestern University in Illinois, where she majored in speech.

Thomas Wolfe's sister introduced Dykeman to her future husband, James R. Stokely Jr., a Tennessee poet whose father was president of Stokely Canning Co. The two married in 1940, shortly after she graduated from college, and kept homes in Asheville and Newport, Tenn.

They wrote several books together, including "Neither Black nor White" in 1957, which won the Sidney Hillman Award as the best book of the year on world peace, race relations or civil liberties.

The couple had two children, Dykeman Stokely and James R. Stokely III, also authors. Dykeman's husband died in 1977 at age 64.

Dykeman's nonfiction books included biographies of Will Alexander, a champion of racial equality, and Edna Rankin McKinnon, an early proponent of birth control.

She was named Tennessee State Historian in 1981, and was also a columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel and an active public speaker.