Edwin H Light

Growing Up in the Colonial Edwin H Light

Growing Up in the Colonial

The Colonial Hotel was a landmark for fifty years in the southeastern Tennessee town, Copperhill. The Colonial, our family's business, housed employees of the Tennessee Copper Company, the major industry in the region. In 1940 I was born in the hotel, and I soon discovered the world surrounded by the hotel's endless stream of interesting characters. Whether it was the gluttonous sewing-machine drummer or my aunt who pulled the trigger, what I observed in my childhood fascinated, informed and sometimes frightened me. Leading me through all this were two brave women, my grandmother and my mother.

"In Growing up in the Colonial, Edwin Light lovingly evokes the personalities that populated his childhood growing up in the family hotel in 1940s and 1950s in southeastern Tennessee. Family, friendships, and long-ago feuds enliven its pages. But at its heart, this memoir is a tribute to Edwin's mother and grandmother, the lessons they taught him, and the love they shared."

-Sharman Esarey, Principal Editor,

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