Annie Fellows Johnston (author of the “Little Colonel” novels)
Annie Fellows Johnston (1863-1931) was a celebrated author of children’s fiction from the 1890s until her death in 1931. As an author, she is best known for her “Little Colonel” novels centered around old Kentucky aristocracy, and in particular, one little girl, Lloyd Sherman, who was nicknamed the “Little Colonel.” It was during a visit to her stepchildren’s aunt and uncle at the Burge home in Pewee Valley that Johnston met five-year-old Hattie Cochran and her grandfather, Colonel George Washington Weissinger, the inspirations for the characters Old Colonel Lloyd and Little Colonel Lloyd Sherman in the very first book in the series, “The Little Colonel,” published in 1895.
Its phenomenal success led to the publication of 11 additional volumes in the “Little Colonel” 
series, two paper doll books, and a child’s diary during the next 17 years. In 1911, Annie Fellows Johnston settled permanently in Pewee Valley, where she lived at The Beeches with her stepdaughter, artist Mary Gardener Johnston. It was at The Beeches that she wrote the final book in the Little Colonel series as well as her autobiography The Land of the Little Colonel (1929), published shortly before she died. On March 29, 2017, a State Historical Marker was placed at The Beeches. Johnston received fan mail from all over the world — letters came from as far away as India and Japan — and children formed “Little Colonel Clubs” across the United States. Four years after her death, “The Little Colonel” movie, starring Shirley Temple in the title role and Lionel Barrymore as the “Old Colonel,” premiered in Louisville. Its release spawned ”Little Colonel” dolls, clothing, games, cards, paper dolls, handkerchiefs and other merchandise highly prized by collectors today.