©2011 www.nelsoncountylfe.com : Earl Hamner during a visit with us here at NCL a few years ago.

Studio City, California

Today marks 88 years that Nelson’s native son, Earl Hamner has been on this earth. Ironically it’s the wedding anniversary of Tommy & Yvette Stafford too! A great day! Earl Hamner, Jr. was born on July 10, 1923 in Schuyler, Virginia.

Earl is best known for creating the long running series, The Waltons on CBS. Though he has a very long list of other career accomplishments spanning his entire life. Just within the past few weeks it was announced that Earl will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Virginia.

Via earlhamner.com: Nelson County native Earl Hamner, writer of novels, television shows, and movies and the force behind the semiautobiographical television series The Waltons, will receive the 2011 Literary Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Virginia at the 14th Annual Literary Awards Celebration on October 15, 2011.

You’ve seen some of the columns in our NCL magazine over the years that Earl has written. We continue to stay in touch with him to this day. We talk by phone at least every month or so just to see what’s happening on each side of the country. For decades Earl has been living out west in Studio City, California. Though he still thinks of his birthplace, Schuyler, as his home.

©2009 NCL Magazine : Nelson County, Virginia native, Earl Hamner, Jr. turns 86 years old today. He was born on this date back in 1923 in Schuyler. Here he sits on the steps of his old home place back in Schuyler.

Happy Birthday Earl from all of back here in Nelson!

Our previous birthday coverage here. And here. And here.

Te read more about Earl visit his blog here.

Photos By Tommy Stafford : ©2009 www.nelsoncountylife.com : Mr. & Mrs. Paul Saunders (left) chat it up with Nelson County native, Earl Hamner, Jr. Thursday night during his homecoming at The Hamner Theater in Afton. : Click any photos to enlarge.

Afton
Nelson County, Virginia
Earl Hamner, Jr. best known as the creator of The Waltons television series on CBS returned home last night to his native Nelson County. Hamner was born on July 10, 1923 in Schuyler, Virginia. Earl turned 86 this past July. The Waltons was based loosely on his childhood experiences growing up here in Schuyler. (Waltons Mountain in the series)

Jeff & Tam Stone, owners of Wintergreen Winery, along with their daughters, greet Earl at the theater. Wintergreen provided wine for the reception. (BTW) Earl's favorite of all wines is Wintergreen's Black Rock Chardonnay

Earl took to the stage in the theater to read lines the 2009 Homecoming cast. Hamner wrote the story which eventually led to The Waltons television series.

Thursday night Earl returned to The Hamner Theater, which was named in his honor. Earl visited with fans first, then read lines from The Homecoming (the pilot that inspired The Waltons television series.) to a sold out crowd.

Yep. Junior Publisher, Adam Stafford, got the chance to meet Earl!

Earl autographs a book for a fan at Thursday night's reception.

A fan stands in line clutching a book for an autograph Thursday night at The Hamner Theater.

Earl will be making several other stops in the nearby vicinity as part of appearance coordinated by his international fan club based in South Carolina.

Previous coverage on Earl Hamner and The Hamner Theater by clicking here.

©2009 www.nelsoncountylife.com : Earl Hamner, Jr. during his last appearance at the Nelson County theater named in his honor. March 2007.

Afton
Nelson County, Virginia

Reception and Reading with Earl Hamner at the Hamner Theater Thursday, Nov. 5 from 6:00 p.m.

The Hamner Theater is hosting an evening with renowned author (and Nelson County native) Earl Hamner on Thursday, November 5th. There will be a reception and book-signing from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. At 7:30p.m., Earl Hamner will read from his beloved Christmas story, The Homecoming. He will be joined by the cast from the upcoming production of The Homecoming (on stage at the Hamner from November 19 to December 13). Admission for this benefit is $50, which includes reception, book-signing and reading. All proceeds will go to the Hamner Theater. Seating is limited, call 434 361 1999 for reservations.

Click on poster above for larger version and more details.

About Earl Hamner: Best-selling author Earl Hamner is well-known as the creator of a television series which drew as many as 50 million American viewers every Thursday night; THE WALTONS remains in syndication, and has aired in nearly every country around the world. It is perhaps less widely-known that his TV adaptation of HEIDI once bumped off the air a pivotal late-season pro-football game between the Raiders and the Jets. (The score was tied with 2 minutes to go.) Born in 1923, in Nelson County, Earl Hamner is also the author of six novels, including the best-seller, “Spencer’s Mountain”, which was made into a film starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara. His work has been awarded an Emmy as well as the most prestigious honor in broadcast journalism, the George Foster Peabody Award. He is the recipient of no less than six Christopher Awards, an award established to ‘salute media that affirm the highest values of the human spirit; award winners encourage audiences to see the better side of human nature and motivate artists and the general public to use their best instincts on behalf of others.’

About the Hamner Theater: The Hamner Theater, a non-profit project of the Rockfish Valley Community Center in Nelson County, receives funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Donovan Foundation, the Perry Foundation and anonymous donors to support its mission of bringing professional theater to Nelson County and to foster new works for the stage.

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Summary:
What – Reception and Reading
Who – Earl Hamner and The Cast of The Homecoming
Where – The Hamner Theater, at the Rockfish Valley Community Center, 190 Rockfish School Lane Nellysford, VA
When – Thursday, November 5 from 6:00 p.m.
Reception 6:00 – 7:00p.m., Reading 7:30 – 8:30p.m.
Tickets – $50 (tax-deductible)
Information 434 361 1999 or www.hamnertheater.com

Event Date: Saturday 1st of August 2009 09:00 AM

Location/Address: 6484 Rockfish River Rd Schuyler, VA 22969

Contact Telephone Please call 434 831-2528 for more information

This post was submitted by Erika Mitchell.

Event Date: Saturday 18th of July 2009 09:00 AM

Location/Address: 6484 Rockfish River Road

Contact Telephone Please call 434 831-2528 for more information

This post was submitted by Erika Mitchell.

©2009 NCL Magazine : Nelson County, Virginia native, Earl Hamner, Jr. turns 86 years old today. He was born on this date back in 1923 in Schuyler. Here he sits on the steps of his old home place back in Schuyler.

Schuyler
Nelson County, Virginia
By Woody Greenberg

Nelson County’s most famous native son, my friend Earl Hamner Jr., turns 86 on July 10, but there is plenty of the mischievous youngster in him. When I spoke to him recently by phone, and asked him what he was up to, he asked if I had been on his new web site yet. “Not recently,” I replied.
“I have a blog,” he said enthusiastically. I turned on my computer and read:
“Waking in the morning, if one is so fortunate, can be the most challenging part of the day. Just getting out of bed can be dangerous. First, you really ought to be able to see. You feel about on the bedside table for your glasses. In doing so you knock over a bottle of aspirin, the alarm clock and the table lamp. Eventually the glasses turn up on page thirty-seven of “How To Improve Your Memory,” the book you were reading when you fell asleep.”

That’s Earl. The renowned writer has a wonderful sense of humor, and it’s fully on display on earlhamner.com. Just as “The Waltons” was a glimmer of family-oriented dramatic entertainment in what had become a television “wasteland” of game shows, violence and situation comedies, earlhamner.com is an island of loving reminiscence and humor in a turbulent ocean of digital information.
But that’s not all he’s up to. “It’s the 50th anniversary of ‘Twilight Zone’ and several magazines are looking for ‘Twilight Zone’- type stories, so I’m in the short story business,” he said, adding that two anthologies, one published by Rod Serling’s widow, have each included one of his earlier “Twilight Zone” stories. In all, eight “Twilight Zone” episodes were written by Earl.
But back to the web site. It contains information about Earl’s four novels, numerous teleplays, movie screenplays and three non-fiction books that are memoirs. The website itself is a wide ranging look at his life’s work.

©2007-2009 NCL Magazine : Earl Hamner, JR (left) with writer and friend, Woody Greenberg (right) talk to fans at The Hamner Theater in 2007.

On the home page he writes: “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!’ Please do that. Come on in to my website and stay as long as you like.”
It’s worth a stay. In recent years, Nelson County has produced no one who has had as far-reaching impact on the United States and the world as Earl Hamner Jr., a native of Schuyler, who created the television series “The Waltons.” The website reminds you that there’s more to Earl Hamner than John-Boy and his family living through The Great Depression and World War II.

A screen shot of Earl Hamner's website.

Before the success of “The Waltons,” his literary and motion picture work had already shoved him into a select pantheon of artists who influence our culture. The film “Spencer’s Mountain,” based on his book of the same name, and the basis for the later television series, broke attendance records at New York’s Radio City Music Hall when it opened.

Later, his television film “The Homecoming,” the pilot film for “The Waltons” series, provided a template for shows like “Little House on the Prairie” and other efforts to tap into the “family market.” Earl Hamner took real-life family situations, found the human drama in them, added healthy doses of virtues like loyalty, love of family, and a sense of adventure, to make “The Waltons” into one of television’s true classics. It is still shown in many foreign countries, and pilgrims from all over the world have visited his hometown Schuyler.

Indeed, the latest blog entry on the website provides a guide to Schuyler, for which Earl Hamner has never lost his love. He weaves his descriptions of his hometown with passages from his four novels and numerous teleplays that rely on real incidents from his life.

Earl during a 2005 visit with Tommy & Yvette Stafford at the NCL office in Greenfield.

About his old home place, now being lovingly restored by Pam Rutherford, he writes:
“If you had looked through the kitchen window when I was still a boy you would have seen the family at breakfast. They were seated at a table nine feet long. Clay had built it himself and it was flanked on either side by wooden benches. There were eight children in all. Each one had red hair, but on each head the shade of red was different. Each of them was small of bone and lean. Some of them were freckled and some were not and some had the brown eyes of their father and some had their mother’s green eyes, but on each of them there was some stamp of grace of build and movement, and it was this that Clay voiced when he said, as he often did, “Every one of my babies is a thoroughbred. You ever in your life see anything so pretty?”
Olivia looked up from the frying pan where she was frying eggs to each individual’s liking, and said, “If I had my way my children would never grow up. I’d just keep them little for the rest of their lives.” From “Spencer’s Mountain.”
“Olivia” is, of course, based on Earl’s mother Doris. I actually got to know Mrs. Hamner before I met Earl. In the late 70s, Nelson County High School had named its journalism honor society for Earl, and she was invited each spring to the induction ceremony, as was I in my capacity as editor of the local newspaper. By that time “The Waltons” had been on the air for several years and was regularly generating ratings as one of the most popular TV shows on the air. We sat in the band room outside of the old auditorium waiting for the ceremony to begin and she told me, “‘The Waltons’ is the only TV show where a person writes about his own family…I don’t reckon a closer family has ever been in this world…A Hollywood writer told me ‘there’s not but one real gentleman left in Hollywood, and that’s your son.’ “

Mrs. Hamner also told me about the hundreds of “Waltons” fans who were finding their way to Schuyler to see where the “real” family had lived. She said Earl provided her with “tea money” since she invited many of them in for tea. Hospitality was one of her most prominent character traits.

That conversation, by the way, was the genesis of the idea for The Waltons Mountain Museum, although it would be at least ten years before the old Schuyler Elementary School would be closed and the museum and community center could be established.

And the real gentleman? Well, he says he still has “more ideas than the time to write them.”

Let’s hope not. Happy Birthday Dear Earl.

To read Earl’s blog head on over to: www.earlhamner.com

Event Date: Saturday 27th of June 2009 08:30 AM

Location/Address: 6484 Rockfish River Rd. Schuyler,VA

Contact Telephone Please call 434-831-2528 for more information

This post was submitted by Erika Mitchell.

©2009 earlhamner.com : A screen grab from Earl Hamner's most recent post about his days in Nelson County, Virginia

Studio City, California
Nelson County, Virginia
“We Virginians are not known for modesty in describing the virtues of our commonwealth. We are tempted to use such descriptive phrases as most beautiful, most legendary, most historic, most hospitable, mother of the most presidents but most of the time good manners finally overtake us and we simply say, “Why don’t y’all come to see us?”

That’s how Earl Hamner starts his most recent entry to his blog over at www.earlhamner.com. Click on Blog at the top once there. Recently Earl has started blogging, and his latest entry is a a great one! He talks all about his days here in Nelson County and some of his favorite places here in the county.

It’s a special walk down memory land and well worth the read, just in time for the weekend!

Event Date: Saturday 23rd of May 2009 08:30 AM

Location/Address: Walton’s Mtn. Museum, Schuyler

Contact Telephone Please call 434-831-2825 for more information

This post was submitted by Deborah Kushner.

Event Date: Saturday 30th of May 2009 08:30 AM

Location/Address: Walton’s Mtn. Museum, Schuyler

Contact Telephone Please call 434-831-2825 for more information

This post was submitted by Deborah Kushner.

©2009 NCL Magazine : A vendor at the new Schuyler Community Farmers' Market bags some greens for a customer

Schuyler
Nelson County, Virginia
With just a hint of rain in the air, Nelson’s newest farmers’ market kicked off this past Saturday morning. The Schuyler Community Farmers Market joins other area markets like the one in Nellysford that started its season last weekend.

Mary Cathenne Gunter with Sage Hill Granola waits on a customer at Saturday's opening market.

The market featured items produced by local farms, baked goods, handmade crafts, art work including jewelry, photography, woodworking and more.

A youngster dances to the live music at The Schuyler Community Farmers' Market.

Complimentary coffee provided by Trager Brothers in Lovingston greeted folks dropping by the market adjacent to Walton's Mountain Museum.

The Schuyler Community Farmers' Market is open each Saturday morning from 8:30 AM until 12:30 AM.

Walton's Mountain Museum 2007 Annversary Celebration

October 18, 2008 is Walton’s Mountain Museum’s 16th Anniversary Day from 10 AM to 4 PM. Regular admission fees apply to enter museum. Inside, 4 gospel or bluegrass performers & special guest speaker, Paul Saunders. Outside there will be hayrides and crafters.