Mary Garrison

Background

Mary Garrison was born on April 22, 1952, in Augusta, Georgia, United States. She is the daughter of H. Levy, Jr. and Ruth (Gilstrap) Rogers.

Education

Mary Garrison had attended Columbia College in 1970-1972 before she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Emory University in 1974.

Career

Mary Garrison is a freelance writer and columnist at Times-News in Hendersonville, the positions she has been holding since 1984. She previously worked as a teacher assistant and foundation director. She is also known as a volunteer in local schools.

Garrison wrote her only book, Slaves Who Dared: The Stories of Ten African-American Heroes, in 2002. Mary Garrison was drawn to writing by her father-in-law. A prolific writer with a particular interest in the Civil War, he involved his family in developing book ideas, research, and proofreading. In an effort to interest his family members in writing during his last year of life, he strongly encouraged them to write books for children and young adults on Civil War topics. Garrison took up the challenge, ultimately publishing Slaves Who Dared: The Stories of Ten African-American Heroes.

In Slaves Who Dared, Garrison recounts the remarkable stories of ten men and women who were born into but escaped from slavery. These stories are drawn directly from narratives that these individuals either wrote themselves or told to someone. A comprehensive index and bibliography, Web sites for locating original narratives, and an extensive suggested reading list complete this book. In reaching her decision to write Slaves Who Dared, Garrison concluded that the stories of these slaves are more than worthy of preservation. She thinks, young people need heroes and they should be the right kinds of heroes.

Achievements

• Mary Garrison is a gifted author who became famous after the publication of her book, Slaves Who Dared: The Stories of Ten African-American Heroes, which received very positive reviews and was honored. This book was included in the Top Forty Young Adult Books selection by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association in 2003. For this book, Garrison was awarded the 2003 Juvenile Book Award from the North Carolina Press Association and the 2003 Juvenile Book Award from the National Federation of Press Women.
  
  For her journalistic activity and contribution to Times-News, she was first at North Carolina Press Association Communications Contest in 2002 and at the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest in 2003.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Slaves Who Dared: The Stories of Ten African-American Heroes

    (Slaves Who Dared describes the lives and times of outstan...)

    2002

Views

Quotations: "I think the history of slavery is something that we often react to with anger, shame, defensiveness, or denial. Why not talk about it head-on, acknowledge it for what it was, and see what we can learn from it?"

"Think about being owned by another human being even under the best of circumstances. When your freedom, your civil liberties, and your dignity, your time, even your spouse and your children belong to someone else, what kind of life is that really?"

Membership

Mary Garrison is a member of the North Carolina Press Association and National Federation of Press Women.

Interests

• reading, hiking, traveling, family, community volunteering

Connections

Mary Garrison married William T. Garrison on August 12, 1973. The marriage produced two children, Patrick and Anne.

Father:

H. Levy Rogers

Mother:

Ruth (Gilstrap) Rogers

husband:

William T. Garrison