River Woman

By: Martha Stinson

Southern West Virginia in the early 1940's is seen through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Rebecca Lynn Carver in River Woman. She tells the stories, and sometimes secrets, of the families who live on the mountain and in the small town of Glade Springs along the New River in Fayette County. Triumph for some, tragedy for others, everyone has a tale.

About the Author

Martha Stinson was born September 21, 1946 in Stokes County, North Carolina, in a little red-brick patterned, tar-papered house, facing Pilot Mountain. Her love of God, people, animals, music, and art determined her lifetime decisions. Over the years, Stinson worked for the state of North Carolina in the mental health field, and later as a park ranger and interpreter for the Corps of Engineers before retiring in 2005 from her job as a radio personality at the local AM radio station, WIZS, Henderson, North Carolina. She then began a leisurely life of hobbies and grandchildren. She and her husband, Dave, have a blended family, which includes four sons and a daughter, eleven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren, plus a host of animals. Her closest companion is her standard poodle, Gracie, who is by her side constantly.

Stinson's idea for the book came as Stinson looked through an old trunk of art supplies, finding notes she had written over the years about people and things she had known.