Library Champions Award Winners

The Jefferson County Public Library Association honored and presented 2005 Library Champion awards to community volunteers, professionals, and businesses for service to public libraries at the annual Holiday Luncheon, December 12 at the Harbert Center.

Left to right: Velma Johnson, Midfield City Council member (nominated by Midfield Library); Sandra Bearden, Friends of Trussville Library member (nominated by Trussville Library); Ken Hubbard, Pres., Western Supermarkets (nominated by Emmet O’Neal Library); Tom Scarritt, accepting on behalf of Victor H. Hanson, III, Publisher, Birmingham News (nominated by Birmingham Public Library (BPL); Bright House Networks, CH 4, Studio Crew: Flora Freeman, Tim Carr, Tim Stout, Community Programming Manager (nominated by BPL); not shown Dr. B. Faye Andrews, Warrior Eye Care (nominated by Warrior Library).

A Woman of the Town

One of the most enduring legends of early Birmingham is the tale of the tragic and kind hearted madam, Louise Wooster. She claimed to have found and lost a great love in the actor John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin. She refused to abandon Birmingham during an epidemic when half the city's population fled, became wealthy operating a respectable brothel directly across the street from city hall, and used her wealth to to aid other fallen women. Her autobiography, long out of print, has become a classic in Birmingham.

In its latest book, A Woman of the Town, the Birmingham Public Library Press has republished Lou Wooster's 1911 memoir The Autobiography of a Magdalen along with newspaper interviews and other material about Birmingham's favorite madam.

Price $15.00

All proceeds benefit the Birmingham Public Library. Books may be purchased at the downtown Birmingham Public Library or through the library's website at http://www.bplonline.orb/sou/books2.asp.