Lois Barnes Binkley will be signing her new novel on Saturday, October 7, from 10 am – 2 pm at the Cheatham County Library in Ashland City. Coal Heartache, and its accompanying song, “Coal Mining That’s All I Know,” tells the real life story of a coal miner who died in the coal mines of Earlington, Kentucky on September 4th, 1941. He left behind a young wife, five little boys, and another on the way. He was twenty-nine years old when the coal mine caved in and he lost his life. He was 18 and his wife was 11 when they married. Their first child was born when his wife was only 12.
The grieving wife and mother could not cope with the loss of her husband combined with raising six children on her own. Wanting to do what was best for her children, she left them with her mother and stepfather and set out to find her freedom. Fourteen years later she returned to make a home with her six children, but it was too late. Her children had already grown and found their own way without her.
Ms. Binkley is the author of The Deserted Sycamore Village which is a history book of the first settlers and their work at the Sycamore Powder Mill where gun powder was made during the Civil War era.
In 1979 Ms. Binkley gained an interest in painting and captured the numerous scenes and buildings in Cheatham County. She has not only been an artist, but an avid historian. When she began research into the old buildings that once stood at Sycamore Powder Mill, she decided to paint them while attending art school in her early 30s.
She states, “I did not set out to write a book, but when I did research for my paintings I was showered with so much information that a book only seemed logical.”
Ms. Binkley is also the author of Meet Your Ancestors that Settled in Cheatham Country, Tennessee – The Newman and Perry Families and their descendants which includes the Anderson, Bess, Binkley, Biggs, Boyd, Carney, Chambliss, Cothern, Felts, Gallaher, Harris, Krantz, Mayo, Orange, Read/Reed, Rediker, and many more local families.
Ms. Binkley is also the author of The Luther Barnes Family which is her direct family line on her father’s side of the family.
Ms. Binkley is a lifelong resident of Cheatham County, Tennessee. She has been owner of Restored Memories Studio and Bridal Shoppe in Pleasant View for the past 45 years where she provides her community with prom dresses, tuxedos, photography, and flower arrangements.
