Louise McNeill (1911-1993) was West Virginia's first Poet Laureate. She served from 1979 until her death in 1993. She was born on a Pocahontas County farm, graduated from Concord College and earned a doctorate in history at WVU. She taught first at one-room schools, and eventually at Potomac State, Fairmont State, and WVU. In all she published nine poetry collections, two histories, and an autobiography, The Milkwood Ladies (1988) one of the finest sources of information about rural West Virginia life early in the twentieth century.
Morgantown: West Virginia University Foundation, 1972. Hardback in dust jacket.