Eugenia Price, a bestselling novelist whose St. Simons Trilogy popularized the history of St. Simons Island, and Joyce Blackburn, a local historian and preservation advocate, both helped bring wider attention to the island’s rich cultural and church heritage.
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In 1961, Eugenia Price (1916–1996), a writer of Christian nonfiction and radio programs from West Virginia, visited St. Simons Island during a book-signing tour. While walking through the cemetery at Christ Church Frederica, she noticed the graves of Anson Greene Phelps Dodge Jr. and his two wives. The discovery inspired her to research the island’s history and the lives of its early residents, shaping the course of her writing career.
Price went on to spend the rest of her life writing richly detailed historical novels set in the American South. Her early works—especially the “St. Simons Trilogy,” which includes The Beloved Invader (1965), New Moon Rising (1969), and Lighthouse (1971)—were extensively researched and featured characters based on real people, many of whom are buried at Christ Church. She later wrote additional historical series, including the “Georgia Trilogy,” the “Florida Trilogy,” and the “Savannah Quartet,” further establishing her reputation as one of the South’s most beloved historical novelists.
After moving to St. Simons Island in 1967 with her partner, Eugenia Price, Joyce Blackburn (1920–2009) became a prominent local author and historian. Blackburn gained recognition in the second half of the 20th century for her biographies, Christian books, and children’s fiction, including the Suki series (1965–1971) and works such as James Edward Oglethorpe (1970), Theodore Roosevelt: Naturalist, Statesman, and Old Mill Day: St. Simons Mill, Georgia 1874–1908 (1976), chronicling the legacy of Anson Greene Phelps Dodge’s lumber mill. Several of her children’s books have been translated into other languages.
A graduate of Moody Bible Institute (1947) and a former radio broadcaster, Blackburn collaborated closely with Price on research and writing. Together, they established the Eugenia Price–Joyce Blackburn Foundation to fund scholarships, charitable work, and literary programs. Blackburn’s personal papers are archived at Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. She continued writing until shortly before her death, leaving a lasting legacy in literature and the preservation of St. Simons history.
Blackburn is buried beside Price, who died in 1996. Price’s tombstone bears the inscription: “After her conversion to Jesus Christ, October 2, 1949, she wrote ‘Light … and eternity and love and all are mine at last.’”
