Gaillard, Frye 1946-

PERSONAL:

Surname is pronounced Gill-yard; born December 23, 1946, in Mobile, AL; son of Walter Frye, Sr. (a lawyer and judge) and Helen Amante (a homemaker) Gaillard; married Rosemary Peduzzi (divorced, 1981); married Nancy Thomas (an elementary school principal), June 4, 1988; children: (first marriage) Rachel Amante, Tracy Moore. Education: Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1968. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Christian ("raised a Presbyterian").

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Indian Trail, NC. Agent—Sally Hill McMillan, 429 East Kingston Ave., Charlotte, NC 28203.

CAREER:

Journalist, writer, editor, and educator. Race Relations Reporter, Nashville, TN, managing editor and staff writer, 1970-72; Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC, staff writer, editorial writer, and southern editor, 1972-90; Queens College, Charlotte, instructor in nonfiction writing, 1990—. Also University of Southern Alabama, Mobile, AL, writer-in-residence, beginning 2005. Light Factory Photographic Arts Center, member of board of directors; Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, member of advisory board. Queens College, writer in residence, 1981.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Regional awards and awards from North Carolina Press Association, for spot news, feature writing, and investigative reporting; Gustavus Myers Award, nonfiction, 1989, for The Dream Long Deferred; Book of the Year award, Alabama Library Association, 2007, for Cradle of Freedom.

WRITINGS:

Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1978, 25th anniversary edition published as Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music, introduction and listeners' guide by Peter Cooper, New-South Books (Montgomery, AL), 2004.

Race, Rock, and Religion, East Woods Press (Charlotte, NC), 1982.

(Author of text, with Dot Jackson) The Catawba River, photographs by Don Sturkey, Gardner-Webb College Press (Boiling Springs, NC), 1983.

(Author of text, with Richard Maschal and Ed Williams) Becoming Truly Free: 300 Years of Black History in the Carolinas, epilogue by Vanessa Gallman and Jerry Shinn; drawings by Al Phillips; photos by Milton Hinnant and Don Sturkey; Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC), 1985.

The Unfinished Presidency: Essays on Jimmy Carter, Wingate College Press (Wingate, NC), 1986.

The Dream Long Deferred, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1988, 3rd edition published as The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 2006.

The Secret Diary of Mikhail Gorbachev (novel), Longstreet Press (Marietta, GA), 1990.

(With wife, Nancy Thomas Gaillard) Southern Voices, Down Home Press (Asheboro, NC), 1991.

(With Kyle Petty) Kyle at 200 M.P.H.: A Sizzling Season in the Petty/NASCAR Dynasty, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1993.

Lessons from the Big House: One Family's Passage through the History of the South: A Memoir, Down Home Press (Asheboro, NC), 1994.

The Way We See It: Documentary Photography by the Children of Charlotte, Down Home Press (Asheboro, NC), 1995.

The Heart of Dixie, Down Home Press (Asheboro, NC), 1996.

If I Were a Carpenter: Twenty Years of Habitat for Humanity, John F. Blair (Winston-Salem, NC), 1996.

Voices in the Attic: A Collection of Writing from Creative Loafing, Down Home Press (Asheboro, NC), 1997.

(With Nancy Gaillard and Tracy Gaillard) Mobile and the Eastern Shore, Arcadia (Charleston, SC), 1997.

As Long as the Waters Flow: Native Americans in the South and the East, John F. Blair (Winston-Salem, NC), 1998.

The 521 All-Stars: A Championship Story of Baseball and Community, Black Belt Press (Montgomery, AL), 1999.

(Editor, with Amy Rogers and Robert Inman) No Hiding Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Charlottearea Writers: An Anthology, Down Home Press (Asheboro, NC), 1999.

(With Melinda Farbman) Spacechimp: NASA's Ape in Space, Enslow Publishers (Berkeley Heights, NJ), 2000.

Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America, University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa, AL), 2004.

Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy, foreword by David C. Carter, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 2007.

(With Sheila Hagler and Peggy Denniston) In the Path of the Storms: Bayou La Batre, Coden, and the Alabama Coast, Pebble Hill (Tuscaloosa, AL), 2008.

With Music and Justice for All: Some Southerners and Their Passions, Vanderbilt University Press (Nashville, TN), 2008.

Columnist for the alternative newspaper Creative Loafing.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Dream Long Deferred was adapted for public television.

SIDELIGHTS:

Frye Gaillard once told CA: "I am a native southerner, born in Alabama, educated in Tennessee. I have spent most of my professional life as a journalist in North Carolina, where I have written extensively about southern race relations, politics, music, religion, and culture. I write about the South and I write about people. You can find interesting subjects nearly anywhere you look.

"The Dream Long Deferred, an account of the landmark Charlotte-Mecklenburg school desegregation case, was adapted for a public television documentary that aired February 1, 1994. Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music was selected by Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wicker for inclusion in the Moscow International Book Fair in 1979."

Gaillard's book Watermelon Wine, first published in 1978, was published in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition as Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music in 2004. A contributor to Small Press Bookwatch called the book "a solid, hands-on assessment." Gaillard has been writing about the American South for more than four decades in books such as The 521 All-Stars: A Championship Story of Baseball and Community. Published in 1999, the book chronicles a season of a semiprofessional black baseball team from Rembert, South Carolina. Other books focusing primarily on the South include As Long as the Waters Flow: Native Americans in the South and the East. He is also author, with race-car driver Kyle Petty, of Kyle at 200 M.P.H.: A Sizzling Season in the Petty/NASCAR Dynasty.

In his 2004 book, Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America, Gaillard chronicles some of the key moments in the fight for equal rights in Alabama in the 1960s, from the Freedom Rides and the Montgomery bus boycott to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and the Black Power movement. "This fine book speaks to the bravery and wisdom of the leaders and legends of the movement—Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokley Carmichael, and Fred Shuttlesworth, who claimed that for him the cause took ‘divine insanity,’" wrote Karen R. Utz for the H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. In addition to writing about movement leaders, the author also includes the stories of everyday people and how they rose up against discrimination. In the process, the author examines how Alabama, known for its bigotry and discriminatory practices, played a pivotal role in ushering in a new era of equality in the South. Timothy N. Thurber, writing in History: Review of New Books, noted that "readers looking for an introduction to the topic will find [the book] enjoyable and informative."

The author has also written extensively about former President Jimmy Carter in books such as If I Were a Carpenter: Twenty Years of Habitat for Humanity, which Booklist contributor Ray Olson called "inspiring, moving, and surprisingly engrossing." Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy, published in 2007, reexamines the legacy of Carter's one term as president of the United States. "When Jimmy Carter left the White House in 1981 and handed the presidency over to Ronald Reagan, he was widely viewed as a failure," noted Chuck Leddy in the Christian Science Monitor, pointing to the Iran hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the energy crisis, and economic problems such as inflation. Gaillard, who wrote about Carter for the Charlotte Observer, challenges many of the negative views of Carter's presidency as he discusses supposed failures such as the Iran crisis but also successes such as the Camp David Accords, in which Carter forcefully brokered an agreement for a framework for peace in the Middle East. Gaillard also writes about Carter's career after leaving the White House, especially his work to bring about peace throughout the world, his efforts in election monitoring in foreign countries, and his long-time work for Habitat for Humanity.

Gaillard is author, with Sheila Hagler and Peggy Denniston, of In the Path of the Storms: Bayou La Batre, Coden, and the Alabama Coast. Quoted in an article for the OA Now Web site, Jay Lamar, director of Auburn University's Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts, commented that the book "captures in words and photographs the uniqueness of these seafood-producing towns, including the … rash of hurricanes." The authors, however, do not focus solely on the weather; the book also includes a look at the area's large population of Asian refugees and many of the economic challenges it has faced.

Gaillard keeps his focus on the South in his book With Music and Justice for All: Some Southerners and Their Passions. This time the author presents a wide-ranging work that covers many aspects of his beloved South, from the civil rights movement and its leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Perry Wallace, to its religious heritage, its music, and profiles of people such as former President Jimmy Carter, country legend Johnny Cash, and Will Campbell, a Southern Baptist renegade. "The article on Johnny Cash, ‘The Man in Black,’ is especially well crafted," noted Maria Browning in a review for the Nashville Scene Web site.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1996, Ray Olson, review of If I Were a Carpenter: Twenty Years of Habitat for Humanity, p. 1645.

Christian Science Monitor, October 30, 2007, Chuck Leddy, "Jimmy Carter: Troubled Presidency, Productive Postlude Carter Has Risen in Stature through His Many Diplomatic and Humanitarian Efforts," review of Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy.

History: Review of New Books, summer, 2004, Timothy N. Thurber, review of Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America, p. 134.

Journal of Southern History, August, 2006, Robert J. Norrell, review of Cradle of Freedom, p. 717.

Library Journal, November 1, 1998, Gwen Gregory, review of As Long as the Waters Flow: Native Americans in the South and the East, p. 94.

Oral History Review, summer-fall, 2005, Richard L. Hughes, review of Cradle of Freedom.

Publishers Weekly, August 30, 1993, review of Kyle at 200 M.P.H.: A Sizzling Season in the Petty/NASCAR Dynasty, p. 83; May 6, 1996, review of If I Were a Carpenter.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2008, review of Prophet from Plains.

Small Press Bookwatch, August, 2005, "The Musicbook Shelf," review of Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music.

Tuscaloosa News (Tuscaloosa, AL), June 8, 2008, Don Noble, "Writers Tackle Storms in First Pebble Hill Book," review of Cradle of Freedom.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (July 27, 2008), Karen R. Utz, review of Cradle of Freedom.

Library of Congress, Local Legacies, South Carolina,http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/SC/ (July 27, 2008), James E. Clyburn, review of The 521 All-Stars: A Championship Story of Baseball and Community.

Nashville Scene,http://www.nashvillescene.com/ (June 12, 2008), Maria Browning, "The Hopeful Southerner," review of With Music and Justice for All: Some Southerners and Their Passions.

National Catholic Reporter,http://ncrcafe.org/ (February 5, 2008), Wayne A. Holst, "Jimmy Carter's Life in Progress," includes review of Prophet from Plains.

OA Now,http://www.oanow.com/ (May 11, 2008), Jay Lamar, "AU's Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities launches Pebble Hill Books."

Office of Public Relations, University of South Alabama Web Site,http://www.southalabama.edu/publicrelations/ (October 14, 2005), "Author Frye Gaillard Joins USA as Writer-in-Residence."

Public Interactive,http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/ (July 27, 2008), Don Noble, review of Prophet from Plains.

Tennessean.com,http://www.tennessean.com/ (July 27, 2008), "Frye Gaillard Reflects on the South, Old and New."