Berniece T. Hiser

Berniece Iona Terry Hiser, writer and teacher, was born April 6, 1908 in Cow Creek, Kentucky, to Wilson Edgar Terry and Ruse Wilder. After graduating from Berea College she taught school in Kentucky and Indiana. She lived in Walton, Kentucky, for many years before her death January 5, 1995. She was buried in Pleasant View Cemetery, beside Pleasant View Church, in Grant County, Kentucky. Her husband Ora Hiser, who died January 5, 1999, was later buried beside her.

Hiser compiled Quare Do's in Appalachia: East Kentucky Legends and Memorats (Pikeville, Kentucky: Pikeville College Press, 1978), a collection of folktales, ghost stories, and tales she collected, many of which involve members of her family. Among the latter is the tale of how her grandmother Sally Wilder Frost was named by Col. John Hunt Morgan.

She also wrote a children's book, set in Kentucky during the American Civil War, The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-straw Hat: A Memorat illustrated by Mary Szilagyi (New York : Dodd, Mead, 1986).

Notes

"Southern Mountain Folktales Being Revived", Lexington Herald-Leader, Section G, Page 6, August 8, 1981

"...Storytelling in the Southern Appalachians is an old art that is continually being rediscovered. Folklorists take a scholarly interests in this. For the rest of us, it's merely a matter of enjoying "old-timey tales from the mountains." Such a collection is "Quare Do's In Appalachia - East Kentucky Legends and Memorats" (Pikeville College), a book of 30 folktales collected by Bernice T. Hiser..."