Nashville native and Brentwood resident Terry Lancaster is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur.
Now, with the release of HERE COME THE NOTHING HEADS, he's a poet-philosopher too. He also makes a pretty mean chocolate cobbler.
His best-selling books have received glowing reviews worldwide thanking him for the understandable, actionable, effective ideas and stories they contain.
He's been featured in Forbes and Automotive News and spoken to audiences coast to coast at TedX and national conventions. He only takes the stage to do two things: change lives and chew gum, and he's all out of gum. He has worked with thousands of small businesses offering proven marketing strategies that put the right words in the right order to tell the right story and make the cash register ring.
He and his wife Mary are the proud parents of three adult daughters, and he spends most of his free time, like every other middle-aged, overweight, native Southerner, at the ice rink playing hockey.
Bryan Lane and his family live in Spring Hill, Tennessee, less than one and a half miles from the 'Familiar Road', known so well by the subject of his book, General John Adams. Bryan is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety consultant and trainer for the University of Tennessee.
Bill Lane started his education in a two room school in Connecticut and ended as a Harvard Ph.D. After an undergraduate major in English with an honors thesis on William Blake, he entered divinity school where his talent for understanding style and genre in literature enabled him to spend a year as the Christian Research Fellow studying philology at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. His scholarly life focused on teaching historical perspectives of the first and second centuries at divinity schools and universities. He also gave generously of his time as a resource person to churches and others in need of his special skills. Lane came to Williamson County to fulfill a dream. He established the Franklin House Study Center on West Main Street where he taught, wrote, and prayed with others.
Bobby Langley was raised in the post-depression era Franklin when it was still a small Southern town. Bobby began a journey from extreme poverty to success as a Williamson county businessman. He became one of the best known athletes in the 1950's at Franklin High School, and still holds several school basketball records. In recent years, Bobby's familiar jersey, number 22, was retired and placed on permanent display at the school, and he was among the inaugural class of inductees into the Franklin High School Sports Hall of Fame. With his father often absent from the household, battling tuberculosis, Bobby learned at an early age how to "fit in"; how to survive in a poor integrated neighborhood while segregation was still the law of the land. It was during this time that he met a kind coach at Battle Ground Academy, J. B. Akin, who let Bobby spend countless hours in the gym. He also honed his shooting skills playing basketball after hours with many of the top African-American players at the nearby County Center, a complex forbidden to black athletes during normal operating hours. Years later, Bobby sat with one of those special friends and relished in the thought that both of their sons, one white and one black, were playing on the same Battle Ground Academy basketball team, and in the same gym where he had spent so many hours.
Joey Lankford and his family left behind all they knew in the US and moved to South Africa to do God's work. Joey has established a profitable agri-business of tunnels/greenhouses producing cucumbers and tomatoes. He also runs a bakery that is starting to take off and teaches some job training courses on campus. He has a heart for business development and job creation. He firmly believes that a hand up is better than a hand out.
Marcene Larkin was born and educated in Wichita, Kansas. After college, she taught school, married, and lived in eight states. Two gifts in her life were her two adopted children. When the children were seven and ten, she realized the questions children find hard to ask, so she wrote a book to help children and parents discuss issues. The book led to some workshops. Larkin moved to Williamson County in 2001, near her son and his wife. She has continued to write and has published both poetry and prose in magazines, books, and reports.
Joe Lassus, a Tulane history major, came to Brentwood in 1999 as the Planning and Codes Director. The City of Brentwood was pleased to find a person with both a master's degree in urban planning and a strong sense of history. The City commissioned a book about Brentwood during the Civil War that was completed by Lassus. In doing related research he was able to find Union soldiers' letters and sketches of fortifications around the familiar bridges and railroad lines of the community. Lassus lives in Thompson's Station.
Ariel Lawhon is a critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction Her novels include: The Wife the Maid and the Mistress, Flight of Dreams, I was Anastasia, Code Name Hlne, The Frozen River, and When We Had Wings (co-written with Kristina McMorris and Susan Meissner). Her books have been translated into numerous languages and have been Library Reads, One Book One County, Indie Next, Costco, Amazon Spotlight, and Book of the Month Club selections. She lives in the rolling hills outside Nashville, Tennnessee, with her husband and for sons. She splits her time between the grocery store and the baseball field.
Born in Iowa, Ardi Lawrence studied fashion design in New York City. She has made her home in the Nashville area, including Brentwood and Franklin, since 1954. She founded the Fashion Merchandising Program at O'More School of Design, has edited corporate publications and The Tennessee Conservationist, and has written travel and human-interest articles for many publications.
Dr. Felix Lawrence was born on Lawrence Road at the home of his grandfather, Felix. He grew up in rural Williamson County. His father, Elijah, like his grandfather, was a respected land-owning farmer. Dr. Lawrence graduated from Natchez High School and Tennessee State University where he met his wife. He then studied dentistry and completed his internship at Meharry Medical College. From there he went to Boston University where he received his Ph.D. in Oral Surgery Pathology. His career was spent in Oak Park, Illinois, where he served as Director of the Oral Surgery Program of the University of Illinois for thirteen years and then for Loyola of Illinois. Semi-retired, he and his wife moved back to Williamson County, where Dr. Lawrence opened a practice in Franklin.
An avid hunter, fisherman, traveler, and photographer, H. Lea Lawrence was born in Hammond, Indiana. After graduating from East Tennessee State University, he has been a newspaper reporter, feature writer, columnist, chief of public relations for the Tennessee Game and Fish Commission, and co-editor of The Tennessee Conservationist. He has also been active in Outdoor Writers' Association of America, National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, and Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association.
Tammy Leach is Williamson County born, bred and educated. Having worked all of her adult life in the medical field, she currently works as a pathology assistant. Tammy has a passion for preserving local history and compiling information for the next generation. In Our Legacy, her assorted news articles focus on Robert "Big Buck" Buchanan and Maurice "MVP" Head and are a popular addition to the Special Collections stacks.
Phillip and Esther Lee were inspired to write Reindeer in Dixie after raising real-life reindeer - Sugar Belle and Silver Bells - on their hilltop farm near Nashville, Tennessee. The Lees shared in the joy the reindeer brought to children and adults alike, and were touched by the effect their visits had on all those around them. Their heartfelt experiences were the catalyst for this book and forthcoming stories starring the adorable and ambitious reindeer sisters.
Born in Tennessee, Martha Lee grew up in central Florida and graduated from Florida State College for Women in 1940. She moved to the Lee family farm in Williamson County with her husband, John, where they raised four children. Active in community life, she wrote her memoirs for her children only, but published them after encouragement from friends.
Except for a year of study in Denmark and four years of teaching at Tokyo Joshi Daigaku (Tokyo Woman's Christian College) in Japan, Sally Lee has lived in Middle Tennessee on a family farm. Interests in literature and folklore led her to create family documents of some length, incorporating family legends and histories, not genealogy. Occasionally, she has done this type of collection for other families, as well as her own. She has also written poetry in various styles.
Shelby R. Lee III lives in the South, and he says it has yielded many rewards and lasting friendships. Comical, compelling, confounding, dramatic, and driven best describes the author's look back over the last few years in writing fiction. many ingredients are required for writing, including a clear mind with focus, so Shelby hopes to capture readers' attention from the start and hold it to the end. Shelby enjoys sailing, golden retrievers, piano music, and a bit of composition. Mostly, he is a survivor in the key of life.
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