Wilma Dykeman Stokely was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction whose works chronicled the people and land of Appalachia.
18 Facts About Wilma Dykeman
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Wilma Dykeman was the only child of Bonnie Cole Dykeman and Willard Dykeman.
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Wilma Dykeman's father had relocated to the Asheville area from New York as a widower with two grown children, and had met and married her mother in Asheville.
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Wilma Dykeman was 60 years old when Wilma was born and died when Wilma was 14 years old.
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Wilma Dykeman attended Biltmore Junior College, graduating in 1938, and Northwestern University, where she graduated in 1940 with a major in speech.
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The couple maintained homes in Asheville and Newport, and Wilma Dykeman continued to divide her time between both homes after Stokely died in 1977.
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Wilma Dykeman became the first female trustee of Berea College and the first female Tennessee State Historian.
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Wilma Dykeman died on December 22,2006, after suffering complications from a fractured hip and subsequent hip replacement surgery.
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Wilma Dykeman is buried at Beaverdam Baptist Church cemetery next to her mother near her childhood home.
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Wilma Dykeman wrote a total of eighteen books, including both nonfiction and fiction.
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Wilma Dykeman wrote three novels: The Tall Woman, The Far Family, and Return the Innocent Earth.
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Wilma Dykeman's 1975 book Too Many People, Too Little Love is a biography of Edna Rankin McKinnon, a pioneer in family planning.
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Wilma Dykeman was chosen for the prestigious honor of authoring "Tennessee, A History", published in 1975, as part of The States and the Nation series in celebration of our nation's bicentennial.
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Wilma Dykeman contributed regular columns to the Newport Plain Talk newspaper.
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Wilma Dykeman was popular as a public speaker, giving 50 to 75 lectures a year by her own estimate.
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Wilma Dykeman taught classes at Berea College and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
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Wilma Dykeman was a member of Board of Trustees for Berea College and the advisory board of the University of North Carolina.
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Wilma Dykeman was inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame and received honorary degrees from several colleges and universities.