KNOXVILLE, TN - Author Joan Cashin will be the keynote speaker for the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Annual Meeting on June 5. She will discuss her latest book, First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War in which she presents the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis as a woman deeply devoted to her husband, yet openly pessimistic of the chances for Confederate independence. A woman of strong opinions and a forceful personality, Varina Davis surprised family and friends by moving to New York, following her husband’s death, where she became a successful newspaper writer and a friend of Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant.
Dr. Joan Cashin is an associate professor of history at Ohio State University and the author of numerous articles and books on the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras of American history. Her biography of First Lady Varina Davis has been described by one reviewer as “biography at its best--deep research, new material, a perceptive author, and an engrossing subject.”
In addition to Dr. Cashin’s lecture, the Annual Meeting will provide an opportunity for the Society to recognize individuals or organizations that have made special contributions toward the preservation, promotion, or interpretation of the region’s history. Categories for recognition include the Teaching Excellence Award, History in the Media Award, and Awards of Distinction.
The 2007 Annual Meeting will be at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, and will begin with a cash bar reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by the dinner and program at 6:30. For ticket information call 865-215-8824 or see the website at www.east-tennessee-history.org.
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