Molly Walling
Molly Walling is the first guest writer in the annual “Sunday with Friends” literary series at the Washington County Public Library in Abingdon, Virginia. The event is Sunday, Jan. 16, at 3 p.m. in the library’s conference room.
Walling, a Bristol, Virginia, native, has written two personal narratives which explore her family history. Her first book, “Death in the Delta,” written in 2012 investigates a long-held family secret that her father as a young man in the 1940s in Mississippi was implicated in the death of a black man, Simon Toombs.
At that time, she thought her quest for knowledge and understanding had come to an end without a firm resolution. And then what happened?
Six months later Walling was contacted by Toombs’s great-great-grandson, Gregory Woods, who was preparing to launch his career as a reporter for the ABC affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina. Woods revealed to her that Toombs had a daughter, Virginia, living in L.A. Not only that but her husband had been raised by the cook on the plantation where Walling’s father grew up.
In her new book, “For Simon: A Journey into Truth and Reconciliation,” Walling goes to Los Angeles to further seek the truth.
This multigenerational story speaks to the struggle for “truth and reconciliation” which Walling feels is so necessary for racial understanding and healing.
Book sales and signing as well as a reception follow the lecture/reading. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.wcpl.net.
