Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 22

COUNTRY ROADS

JOE TENNIS

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

LIT TOUR

The city is touting its significant bounty of authors.

Jimmy MacKenzie, left, and Sarah
Giavedoni are the guides for the Asheville
Lit Tour, which touts the legendary authors
of western North Carolina.

immy MacKenzie stopped at the center
of a city block to tout "Asheville's literary towering genius," Thomas Wolfe.
"And I mean that literally and figuratively," says MacKenzie. "He was one of the
greatest writers of his generation. He was
also six-and-a-half feet tall. So he's a giant
in both ways."
Wolfe was born at Asheville, North Carolina, on Oct. 3, 1900, and grew up around
his mother's boardinghouse and his father's
monument shop, says MacKenzie.
Today, the late author of "Look Homeward Angel" is one of the stars of the newly developed Asheville Lit Tour (AVL).
"Everything on this tour is from a book
written about Asheville, in Asheville or
written by someone staying in Asheville,"
says MacKenzie, 40, who founded this
90-minute walking tour with an old college friend, 32-year-old Sarah Giavedoni.

Walton Reunion; John & Olivia's B & B Opens

xciting news for Walton-Earl Hamner, Jr. fans: Several cast members of the show "The Waltons" are
scheduled to appear at the October
25-26, Forever Friends of the Waltons
Reunion. Mary Ellen Walton (Judy
Norton), Jason Walton (Jon Walmsley), Ben Walton (Eric Scott) and
Elizabeth Walton (Kami Cotler) are
scheduled to appear.
In addition to the reunion, the
grand-opening of John and Olivia's
Bed & Breakfast Inn will take place.
John & Olivia's is owned by husband
and wife Kurt and Carole Johnson.
"John & Olivia's Bed & Breakfast Inn is a Depression-era Virginia

home," says Laurie Lane, manager of
the Walton Hamner house.
The inn is a five-bedroom, fivebath B & B in Nelson County, Virginia, in the community of Schuyler,
boyhood hometown of Earl Hamner,
Jr., creator of "The Waltons."
John & Olivia's rooms will feature
LAURIE LANE
antiques and period pieces
from the 1930s, with a modern touch in the bathrooms.
For more information:
Waltonhamnerhouse.com or
434-831-2017.
-BECKY ROBINETTE WRIGHT

The Walton Hamner House, above, will be a focal point of the October
reunion; John & Olivia's B & B, right, is slated to open for the event.

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Characters on this jaunt include writers Wilma Dykeman, John Ehle, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Charles
Frazier, James Patterson, Carl Sandburg
and Asheville's ghost-guru Joshua P. Warren. Tours begin and end at the downtown
fountain near the French Broad Chocolate
Lounge, 2 S. Pack Square.
"We had a wealth of local literary
knowledge," says MacKenzie. "I've always
been a reader, and I've always just been
interested in literature. There's a lot here
in Asheville, but there's a lot that you're
missing, and that's the whole historical literature thing. When you dive into it, it's
bottomless."
Asheville Lit Tour: Tours held on Wednesdays, 6 p.m.; and on Saturdays and Sundays
at 4 p.m. Cost is $25. Visit avllitmap.com or
email avllitmap@gmail.com.
-JOE TENNIS

LAURIE LANE

http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019

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