Lynwood Montell, famous storyteller/author, spent an evening entertaining at Adair County High School recently as part of a program of the arts.

It included Montell's presentation, one by students and by the Adair County Workshop Choir pictured at right. Also featured were art exhibits by Mrs. Henrietta Scott's student artists.

The special event was made possible through a grant from the Kentucky Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Rita Campbell, General Supervisor at Adair County High School, contacted Dr. Montell about the date and then completed the application form.

When she received notification that her application had been approved to finance Dr. Montell's visit and presentation, the details were worked out to add the rest of the entertainment.

Mr. Lepiarczyk's presentation stared Humanities students Brandy Smith and Ashley Ashbrook; German students Derrek Cowan, Joseph Hale and Roger Romines; history students Andy McAllister, Todd Bardin, Bryan Coffey and Cecelia Claywell. One part of the student presentation included a pictorial essay on the results of a challenge by Mr. Lepiarczyk to go to the public square in Columbia and find beauty. The class members brought pictures and drawings of landscape and buildings including the restored Columbian Theatre, the faces on the courthouse columns, and the clock tower.

Dr. Montell kept the audience's rapt attention with ghost stories from his collections included in his published books which number over a dozen, including:

The Saga of Coe Ridge, Don't Go up Kettle Creek, Deathlore in the Kentucky Foothills, Killings-Folk Justice in the upper South; Singing the Glory Down, Upper Cumberland Country, Kentucky Ghosts, Those Were The Days, Kentucky Ghost and Witch Stories from the 1930s, and Always a People-Oral Histories of Contemporary Woodland Indians.

Listen to your elders

"Go to your elders," Dr. Montell told students, teachers and family members making up the audience of over 150, "Take a tape recorder and go listen to your elders-don't lose the stories they know."

His own stories and views come from his life experiences, many of them with people in this region. He seemed familiar with every little community around.

William Lynwood Montell attended Campbellsville College, UK, and Western Kentucky University, then received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Indiana University. Subsequently he has taught and held administrative offices at both Campbellsville College and at Western. He taught as visiting professor at UCLA and the University of Notre Dame.