For the newspaper announcement of our engagement, I wrote, “George Bierce Perrine III is from Pewee Valley, Kentucky, and  graduated from Transylvania College in Lexington, KY.”    My mother took one look at that sentence and asked, “Can’t we say he’s from Louisville?”  But all of that is true.   George is vaguely  related to the caustic writer Ambrose Bierce.  Transylvania is a small Christian Church school.  The name means across the wood and is in no way related to Dracula.

During the years George grew up, Pewee Valley was a charming and tiny town east of Louisville.  It’s still a charming town but Louisville now surrounds it.   His family lived in a lovely antebellum house on Maple Avenue, a street, as you would guess, with huge maple trees shading the yards.    Pewee Valley is best known for being the home of  Annie F. Johnston who wrote the Little Colonel books in the early 1900’s.

When I became a Perrine, I inherited a marvelous sister-in-law.  Diane is brilliant.  She graduated from Cornell and was a business executive for many years.  Now, she’s a well-known scholar and researcher, an expert in the underground railroad in Kentucky and surrounding states.  She’s also a popular speaker who gives programs about Kentucky country stores and other topics all around the state.

Diane had agreed to blog today on Pewee Valley, her memories of the town and her mother.   Unfortunately, I got sick and didn’t have time to set it up.  Diane Perrine Coon (google her–you’ll be impressed) will blog here next Tuesday.  I’m so pleased she’s agreed.