A house RESOLUTION

 

to recognize and honor Linda Ketron, founder of CLASS Publishing and the Moveable Feast literary luncheon program in Georgetown County, and to congratulate her upon receiving the 2025 Frances Mims-Paul Talmadge Literary Advocacy Award.

 

Whereas, the Frances Mims-Paul Talmadge Literary Advocacy Award is given biennially by the Board of Governors of the South Carolina Academy of Authors (SCAA), to honor individuals or organizations that have demonstrated long and continuing service to the literary arts in South Carolina; and

 

Whereas, the late Frances Mims, an English professor at Anderson College, and the late Paul Talmadge, a vice president and academic dean at Anderson College, established the SCAA together in 1986, and the literary advocacy award honors them; and 

 

Whereas, Ms. Ketron has served as the founder/director of CLASS (Community Learning About Special Subjects) for more than a quarter of a century, and for a dozen years she has served as editor/publisher of CLASS Publishing, releasing seventy-three books of genres which include children's, fiction, history, memoir, poetry, and photography. Most reflect South Carolina subjects, many of them based in the Lowcountry, with a special division devoted to Brookgreen Gardens; and

 

Whereas, in 1998, she founded the Moveable Feast program, a year-round, weekly literary luncheon that has brought a thousand writers to restaurants and event halls on the Waccamaw Neck and has attracted more than a hundred thousand readers to connect with and learn from those writers; and

 

Whereas, a native Oregonian, Ms. Ketron began the first of several careers in San Francisco in the 1970s. She earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Whittier College in California and a master's degree in health services administration from the Antioch College in San Francisco; and

 

Whereas, she and her playwright/screenwriter husband moved from Manhattan to Pawleys Island in 1988. Since then, she has created and administered several continuing education programs for senior citizens, including Senior Semesters, Campus Brookgreen, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University, a position she held for eleven years, and CLASS, now in its third decade; and

 

Whereas, for twenty years, Ms. Keaton owned and managed Art Works, a fine arts gallery for local artists, several of whom became illustrators for later CLASS children's books; and

 

Whereas, in 1994, Ms. Ketron initiated the Waccamaw Neck Bikeway, and now the seventeen miles of walking and cycling paths connecting Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island have recently been completed. A lifelong library advocate, she has served on the FOWL (Friends of Waccamaw Library) board of the Waccamaw Neck Branch Library since 1990 as a member, chair of several committees, secretary, vice president, president, and now editor of the FOWL Community Connector, a twice monthly e-newsletter promoting all library and community nonprofits' program opportunities; and

 

Whereas, she was honored by receiving the 2025 Frances Mims-Paul Talmadge Literary Advocacy Award on April 12, 2025, with a festive luncheon in the Campus Room at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, which featured readings from six CLASS Publishing authors and a repeat Moveable Feast presenter Kathryn Smith. Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

 

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize and honor Linda Ketron, founder of CLASS Publishing and the Moveable Feast literary luncheon program in Georgetown County, and congratulate her upon receiving the 2025 Frances Mims-Paul Talmadge Literary Advocacy Award.

 

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Linda Ketron.

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