James Larkin Pearson
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James Larkin Pearson | |
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Born | James Larkin Pearson September 13, 1879 |
Died | August 27, 1981 Wilkes County, North Carolina | (aged 101)
Occupation(s) | poet and newspaper publisher |
Known for | Poet Laureate of North Carolina (1953–1981) |
James Larkin Pearson (September 13, 1879 – August 27, 1981) was a poet and newspaper
Background
Pearson was born on September 13, 1879, in the Brushy Mountains of Wilkes County, North Carolina. He was born in a log cabin on his parents’ farm. According to Pearson in his book My Fingers and My Toes, his first attempt at poetry came when he was about four years old: "One cold winter day my father had me out with him and asked me, "Jimmy, are you cold?" Without taking any time to study out my answer, it came like a flash: "My fingers and my toes, my feet and my hands, are just as cold, as you'd ever see a man's." From this point, Larkin wrote, he wanted to be a poet. He was a poor student in school and wrote that he "was set down as a hopeless case...quit school entirely at 16, having never been in school more than 12 months, from first to last." However, he continued to educate himself, even when he was plowing on the family farm: "I always carried my notebook and my pencil with me, and as I trudged between the plow-handles in the hot sunshine, my mind was busy working out a poem." Pearson worked on the family farm until he was 21.
Career
In 1900 Pearson began working with R. Don Laws on The Yellow Jacket, a newspaper which was distributed nationally and known for its radical political views, such as espousing
On August 4, 1953, North Carolina Governor
Family life
In May 1907 Pearson married Cora Wallace. She died in 1934 of an asthma attack while in Pearson's arms. He remarried, this time to Eleanor Fox, in 1939. She died in 1963. He did not remarry after his second wife's death. Pearson had two children: Agnes, who was adopted, and another daughter, who was stillborn. For most of his adult life Pearson lived on his farm, called "Fifty Acres", in Boomer, North Carolina. He eventually died on August 27, 1981, at the age of 101.
References
- Welborn, Ken. "Sometimes treasures just walk through the front door…", Wilkes Record, 15 February 2006.
- "James Larkin Pearson 1879–1981, Biographical and Historical Note", James Larkin Pearson Library, Wilkes Community College. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
External links
- The fool-killer. Volume X (Boomer, N.C.), 01 Feb. 1920. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.