M. Kay duPont, a former “Little Miss Cedartown,” recently won the 2003 Georgia Writers Association fiction award for her book, Loving Mr. Lincoln: The Personal Diaries of Mary Todd Lincoln.
     An author and speaker, duPont was born in Cedartown and now lives in Atlanta.
     “I lived on Wisahicken [Avenue] for a couple of years,” she said in a recent interview. “My parents owned a restaurant on Main Street. I was crowned Little Miss Cedartown when I was about four.
     “Then we moved to Tecumseh, AL, just ten miles from Cedartown, and I went to first grade at Spring Garden. My mother later moved back to Collard Valley and opened a real estate company in Cedartown, K Realty, which she kept for about 15 years. Most people would recognize the name Kay Herman.”
     duPont said she is “still very connected” to this area. Her mother was born in Rome. And her aunt and uncle, Carl and Dale Millican, still live in Cedartown with their family.
     Another aunt and uncle, Herb and Shirley Millican, live in Rome, and yet another aunt and uncle make their home in Adairsville.
     An excerpt from her new book will be included in “On My Mind,” the anthology of winners’ works to be released at GWA’s annual Spring Festival.
     She said, “I’m very excited about winning this award for Loving Mr. Lincoln. I would love for everyone who has ever heard of Mary Todd Lincoln to read the story from her point of view—she
deserves to be heard.”
     Loving Mr. Lincoln (ISBN #0-9614927-5-9) will be in bookstores soon, but is available now from the author at www.lovingmrlincoln.com.
     The book is based on meticulous research and accurate historical facts.
     As M. Kay duPont unveils one of the strongest, yet most tragic, relationships in history, the personal life of Abraham and Mary Lincoln is revealed with clarity and detail.
     The story is presented in Mary Lincoln’s own words and chronicles her life, love, and daily struggles with Abraham from the day they meet until the day he dies.
     In frank, haunting journal entries, Mary describes the pain she felt when Abraham left her at the altar, when her sons died, and when Abraham’s political career seemed to be at an end.
     She writes from her heart about the tragic years of slavery and the Civil War, and worries about her own shifting moods and Abraham’s frequent bouts of depression, but she delights in the joy of the deep and binding love evident in the Lincoln marriage.
     Mary’s diary entries recount how and why she pushed her quiet husband toward the Presidency and describes her joy at finally achieving her life-long ambition of reaching the White
House.
     duPont has been writing since she was six years old. She self-published her first book that year with a citywide distribution of one copy.
     When she was approximately 18, she published a collection of poetry entitled Illusions and Dreams, and had a weekly poetry column in a metropolitan newspaper.
     By the time she was 22, she had won major awards in every category of writing, from children’s literature to editorials.
     Her articles and stories have been published in dozens of magazines over the years. duPont has written three successful business books: Don’t Let Your Participles Dangle in Public!, Business Etiquette and Professionalism, and Diversity in the Workplace: Communication is the Key.
     She is a contributing author to Chocolate for a Woman’s Soul, which won a place on the USA Today Best Seller list.
     In addition to her own writing, duPont serves as copywriter, editor, and writing coach to some of the country’s top organizations, speakers, and authors.
     She is a Certified Speaking Professional and a Certified Professional Development Trainer who teaches writing and other business communication seminars all over the world.
     She presents a one-woman show for conference and corporate programs, as Mary Lincoln or as Mary’s biographer, and has created a 20-minute version for school groups, organizations, Convention and Visitors Bureaus, and so forth.
     duPont will present this short program at the Jimmy Carter Library on April 12 in conjunction with the Smithsonian Presidential Portraits exhibit.
     When asked how she became interested in writing, she said, “I don’t really know how or why, but I’ve always loved words. I wrote my first ‘book’ when I was six and never stopped.”
     In high school, when her class studied the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, she thought he must have had a strong mentor because she never saw him as politically or socially savvy enough to be President.
     “When I read about Mary Todd,” duPont said, “I thought she must have been a guiding force, but all the books said she was just the opposite—a tyrant, an albatross, a lunatic.
     “The more I read, the more I thought she was getting a bad rap. So I began to read more about her and decided that I wanted to write her version of their years together.
     “I started making notes about 20 years ago, but then took the next 20 years off to be a professional speaker instead of a writer. I finally decided it was time to tell her story and spent the next three years researching and writing her 26 diaries.
     “She’s a fascinating, much-maligned woman whom I believe pushed Abraham to be in the right place at the right time with the right social credentials.
     “I never dreamed it [writing the book] would be so intensive. But once I began the process, I realized that if it weren’t true to dates and facts, I would lose credibility. I had to study not only the historical facts, but the times and mores as well. I had to know whether they used toothpaste and what kinds of clothing they wore, what happened on what dates in the war, what words and
idioms they used.”
     Reviewers have praised duPont’s newest book. Dr. James McPherson, Princeton University, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, Crossroads of Freedom and more than a dozen other Civil War era books, said, “If Mary Todd Lincoln had kept a diary, it might have read very much like Kay duPont’s fictional representation. Offering new insights on both Mary and Abraham, Loving Mr. Lincoln is a poignant and gripping story of their life together facing personal tribulations and national crises.”
     Mark Victor Hansen, cocreator of the #1 New York Times best-selling series, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and coauthor of The One Minute Millionaire, talked about the universal appeal of the story when he said.
     “Everyone loves Abraham Lincoln and everyone wants to know the real power behind the greatest presidential leader of all time. Kay duPont has written Mary Todd Lincoln’s story in a captivating, page-turning style that will wow your soul.”
     Jean H. Baker, Goucher College, who is the author of Mary Todd Lincoln and three other books on the Civil War period said, “An engaging idea. Sensitive appreciation of Mary Todd Lincoln and good descriptions of Mr. Lincoln. The mechanism of a diary for a modern reader is unique and the chapters are lively. The book reflects both the person and the age. Measured against the odds she faced, Mary Todd Lincoln deserves to be remembered as an important part of Mr. Lincoln’s life and I’m pleased that Kay duPont has reminded us of this.” For more information, visit www.lovingmr.lincoln.com.
      To schedule a presentation for your school group or organization, email Kay@LovingMrLincoln.com.