JIS Historic People

Mahone, Willie Pearl
Birth Year : 1925
Mahone was born in the coal camps of Jenkins, KY. She is the subject of the award winning children's books in the The Willie Pearl Series, written by her daughter, Michelle Y. Green. Green is a graduate of the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Master's Program in Writing. Green's historical fiction series was written in the early 1990s and is set in a Depression-era coal-mining town in Kentucky. Willie Pearl: Under the Mountain, the second book in the series, received the 1993 Children's Literary Award for Multicultural Publishing. For more see Michelle Y. Green on the Reading is Fundamental/Reading Planet website; and "Honoring family history leads author Michelle Y. Green to awards," on the NEA website.
Subjects: Authors, Mothers, Children's Books and Music
Geographic Region: Jenkins, Letcher County, Kentucky

Young, Eddie L.
Birth Year : 1923
Born in the coal camps of Jenkins, KY, Young is the father of Michelle Y. Green, author of the Willie Pearl Series. Eddie Young was a Tuskeegee Airman and one of the first African American pilots to fly in Korea and Vietnam. Green's book in progress, High Flight, is based on her father's life. This entry was submitted by Michelle Y. Green.
Subjects: Aviators, Fathers, Military & Veterans
Geographic Region: Jenkins, Letcher County, Kentuck