author
Etta Belle Walker
b. 1903
A Virginia writer with a gift for local legend, she helped bring the Shenandoah Valley’s stories and folklore to a wider audience. Her work blends regional history with a storyteller’s sense of place.
1 Audiobook
Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia
by Carrie Hunter Willis, Etta Belle Walker
About the author
Known in available records as Etta Belle Walker and also as Etta Belle Walker Northington, she is best remembered as the coauthor of Legends of the Skyline Drive and the Great Valley of Virginia. That book, written with Carrie Hunter Willis, explores the history, legends, and folklore of the Shenandoah Valley and nearby Virginia landscapes.
Archival material from Longwood University identifies her as Etta Belle Walker of Emporia, Virginia, born in 1902, not 1903. The same record says she studied at the State Normal School for Women in Farmville and earned her diploma in 1922.
The surviving online sources available here give only a limited picture of her life, but they do show her as a regional writer interested in Virginia history and culture. Project Gutenberg also lists her under the alias Northington, which matches later book listings for Etta Belle Walker Northington.