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It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Earl on March 24, 2016. Below is an obituary written by Earl's devoted friend, James Person. Earl Hamner (1923-2016)
Born
into a large affectionate family in Virginia's Blue Ridge foothills
in 1923, Hamner knew from an early age that he wanted to be
a writer. He grew up during the Great Depression, an era that
captured his imagination and later served as the time setting
of his best-known novels and TV series. After seeing active
service in the U.S. Army during World War II and then interning
as a writer for radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Hamner began
writing for radio (and later, television) programs in New York,
notably The Today Show. In 1961, with television transitioning
from live programming to film, he relocated to Los Angeles,
where he soon became a contributor of scripts to The Twilight
Zone, hosted by a man he had known at WLW, Rod Serling.
He also published the autobiographical novel Spencer's Mountain,
which was praised at length by novelist Harper Lee and adapted
to a successful film starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. He won the Christopher Award five times and also took home the coveted George Foster Peabody Award in 1972 and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama (Continuing) in 1973 for The Waltons. Despite having achieved this level of success and international recognition, he remained the real-life John-Boy Walton, never losing his affection for the folkways, old stories, traditions, and manners of the family united in loving community with its members, close friends, and the larger community, living on family land or on long-familiar ground. In his autobiographical works of imagination especially--Spencer's Mountain, the CBS drama Appalachian Autumn, The Homecoming, and even the nighttime drama Falcon Crest--the past forever flows into the present. In one of the narrations that bookended an episode of The Waltons, Hamner wrote: "Some men are drawn to oceans, they cannot breathe unless the air is scented with a salty mist. Others are drawn to land that is flat, and the air is sullen and is leaden as August. My people were drawn to mountains. They came when the country was young and they settled in the upland country of Virginia that is still misted with a haze of blue which gives those mountains their name. . . . In my time, I have come to know them. . . . I have walked the land in the footsteps of all my fathers. I saw yesterday and now look to tomorrow." Until the end of his life, Hamner held to a personal vision of television and motion pictures as media for affirming the better angels of human nature, reminding his audience that the past is never dead; it's not even past. His world of wondering boyhood and moral imagination can never stale. In Depression-era Walton's Mountain, in the opulence of Falcon Crest, even in the unnerving alternative worlds of The Twilight Zone, he created worlds to delight in and revisit time and again. CLICK HERE to read a collection of some personal thoughts James shared about Earl. Below is a list of organizations Earl supported. He would be honored to be remembered by a charitable gift in his name to any of the following institutions: The
Library of Virginia Foundation The
University Richmond The
National Audubon Society The
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Motion
Picture & TV Fund Foundation
When
I was growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia during
the Great Depression, we always had friends and neighbors stopping
by. My mother or father would meet them at the door and say:
"Come on in and sit till bedtime!" Lastly, there's a blog. I call it YOU ME AND THE LAMP POST. I'll let you in on whatever adventures I happen to fall into and also share occasional thoughts about writing that hopefully might be useful to other writers -- beginners or professionals. So be my guest. It's nice to have you here. And stay till bedtime or as long as you like! P. S. Sign up for email updates and I will let you know about new features, newly published work, public appearances, or breaking news in general.
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Best
known as the creator, executive producer, and warm narrative
voice of the long-running television series The Waltons,
writer Earl Hamner died Thursday, March 24, in Los Angeles at
Cedars Sinai Medical Center. He was 92 and had battled cancer
for nearly two years. He is survived by Jane, his wife of 61
years, as well as his son Scott, himself an accomplished writer,
and daughter Caroline, a family counselor.
I
am in the process of recording my book, THE AVOCADO
DRIVE ZOO, chapter by chapter, which you can listen
to here soon. I will let you know when it is available. 