Kentucky author and Calloway County native, Bobbie Smith Bryant recently published her fourth book, A Beautiful Star: The Life of Lois Etoile Brewer. In this, her first biography, Bryant captures the simplicity of farm life from the turn of the century into the industrial age and beyond. The social and cultural elements of the family farm are firmly embedded in Kentucky’s heritage. Bryant once again weaves ordinary daily chores – the basic tasks of a farming lifestyle – into the story.

“Bobbie Smith Bryant has a gift for tapping the rich veins of Kentucky’s rural heritage and sharing it through pictures and stories. In this, her latest book, she takes us into the tobacco fields of the Black Patch region, behind the barn doors of a farm culture known for its dark tobacco. For generations, western Kentucky farmers have grown the dark leaf as a cash crop: to feed and clothe their families, educate their children, and help build their communities. These farm families are inseparably linked to a way of life that may soon be gone. Thank you, Bobbie, for an important story, well told.”

                                    – Byron Crawford,

 Kentucky Living magazine