Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Rebecca Caudill – Visitor, 1960s-70s
Board Member, 1966-1974
Rebecca Caudill Ayars (1899-1985)

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TAGS: Rebecca Caudill Ayars, authors, writers, PMSS trustees, James Sterling Ayars, Wesleyan College, Vanderbilt University, fundraising letters, Little School report, Rebecca Caudill Day, Adrian Metcalf, Old Log, mountain children, Champaign-Urbana Peace Council, Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award, James Sterling Ayars

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REBECCA CAUDILL AYARS Visitor Board

Before Pine Mountain

Rebecca Caudill Ayars was an acclaimed American author of children’s literature, best known for her precise prose and historical accuracy of Appalachian life and the American pioneer era. Her writing was highly influenced by her childhood in the Kentucky and Tennessee mountains, where she experienced a simple life and deep connection to nature. 

Over a career spanning five decades, she published more than 20 books that earned her numerous prestigious honors in children’s publishing. 

Ayars was the first in her family to attend college, earning a B.A. from Wesleyan College in 1920 and a Master’s in International Relations from Vanderbilt University in 1922.

Soon after attending Wesleyan College, she taught English and history in Tennessee. After Vanderbilt University, she spent two years teaching English as a second language in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Later, she worked briefly as an editor for a publishing house in Nashville, Tennessee, followed by a job in a publishing house in Chicago. By 1937, she was married to James S. Ayars, had two children, and was living in Urbana, Illinois.

Ayars’ first book, Barrie and Daughter, a juvenile novel, was published in 1943. (See selected bibliography below.)

REBECCA CAUDILL AYARS: Pine Mountain

Rebecca Caudill Ayars’s first recorded visit to Pine Mountain Settlement School was mentioned in a 1961 fundraising letter:

This autumn it has been our privilege to have many visitors, among them Rebecca Caudill Ayars. Those who work with children and books will need no introduction to Rebecca Caudill. You will already include her among your friends. To those who have not had this opportunity, I want to introduce the author of the “Happy Little Family” series, of “Susan Cornish,” of “Tree of Freedom,” and of other books which rank highly not only with those who give adult recognition to outstanding works of children’s literature, but also with the reading public for whom she writes, the children; and perhaps especially the children of this area, for she was born in these hills, within a mile of the birthplace of William Creech, a founder of Pine Mountain Settlement School. 

In 1964, Ayars paid another visit to the Pine Mountain Settlement School. During that time she toured PMSS’s Little School which provided school readiness activities for three-and four-year-old children living in the area. She made several close friends with PMSS staff, including Mildred Mahoney and Connie Fearington Brosi.

Afterward, she wrote a report that included her keen observations and an enthusiastic endorsement of the Little School.

Joyce Whitaker, a PMSS staff member, wrote in January 1964 to Director Burton Rogers, describing Ayars visit to the PMSS area with her husband and a photographer friend:

In October we rented an apartment for eight days to the noted author Rebecca Caudill Ayars and her husband. At that time the University of Kentucky Southeast Center in the town of Cumberland, her birthplace, observed a special Rebecca Caudill Day with displays, programs, and three lectures by her. She met with groups of our children and with two other high school groups in the county.

In December of 1964, Ayars wrote a fundraising letter addressed to “Dear Friends of Pine Mountain Settlement School.” She listed the many memories of Pine Mountain that she gained from her visit: fall colors, car and jeep trips up the creeks, kinfolks, talks with the staff and a “haunting memory of the children.” She was pleased to learn that her great uncle Adrian Metcalf built and lived in Old Log, the original campus building. She describes the children in detail and how they are both like and unlike other children:

Most of them are on a dead end street. Their mountains are impoverished. Farming, except for subsistence farming…is gone. Sheep raising is gone. Most of the coal mining is gone. The big trees have all been lumbered. The creeks are many, but industry has found no way to harness them productively. A few roads are being built, but roads cannot solve the problem of a people without the means of livelihood.

Ayars mentions the cooperation of Pine Mountain Corporation with Harlan County to serve all the area children. With money from contributions, PMSS has “an able, dedicated director, a faculty recruited by the director and his staff and in love with teaching the Pine Mountain children; the finest library in the area, voluntarily staffed by Mrs. [Mary] Rogers and assistants …” and enough room to play and learn.

Ayars tells of her and her husband’s worries for the children’s futures. Although many persons and agencies are working on their problem, the children need help to “get the sort of education that only Pine Mountain Settlement School offers. Perhaps because they are in a peculiar sense my own people, I feel especially anxious about them.” … [But] they belong to all people everywhere who love children…” and she ends by asking the readers to send checks to help them get a good education and the good life PMSS “strives so hard to give them.”

Impressed with the mission and accomplishments of Pine Mountain Settlement School, Ayars began serving as a PMSS board member from 1966 until 1974 when she was then named a Honorary Trustee. (Nancy Sather was elected to complete Mrs. Ayars’ term.)

REBECCA CAUDILL AYARS: After Pine Mountain

In 1970, Ayars was invited to make the principal address at the 50th reunion at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. As she prepared the Alumna Day talk, she was determined to not discuss “the good old days” of 1920 but to address the “Next Fifty Years.” She wrote to three PMSS staff members, Nancy Sather, Loren Kramer, and Toppy Kramer, requesting their thoughts concerning how one is so often the product of one’s times but how very important it is to deeply reflect in all periods of life and to question our beliefs and our world views.

A Quaker, Ayars was a dedicated community activist, co-founding the Champaign-Urbana Peace Council. The public library in Cumberland is named after her. In 2014, she was posthumously inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, the first children’s author to receive the honor. Also in her honor, the state of Illinois established the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award, an annual prize where schoolchildren vote for their favorite book. 

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Rebecca Caudill was born on February 2, 1899, in Poor Fork (now Cumberland), Harlan County, Kentucky, to Susan S. Caudill and George Washington Caudill, a farmer. She was the fifth of eleven children. During her childhood, the family moved to Tennessee.

On September 8, 1931, In Tennessee, she married James Sterling Ayars (1898-1986), a journalist and editor. They settled in Urbana, Illinois, where they raised two children, James Sterling Ayars, Jr. (1932-1956) and Rebecca Jean Ayars (1935-2019).

Rebecca Caudill Ayars died on October 2, 1985, in Urbana, Illinois. She was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Champaign, Illinois.

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GALLERY: REBECCA CAUDILL AYARS Visitor Board

 

Title	Rebecca Caudill Ayers
Alt. Title	Rebecca Caudill ; Rebecca Ayars ; Miss Caudill ;
Identifier	https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=109879
Creator	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Alt. Creator	Ann Angel Eberhardt ; Helen Hayes Wykle ;
Subject Keyword	Rebecca Caudill Ayars, authors, writers, PMSS trustees, James Sterling Ayars, Wesleyan College, Vanderbilt University, fundraising letters, Little School report, Rebecca Caudill Day, Adrian Metcalf, Old Log, mountain children, Champaign-Urbana Peace Council, Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award, James Sterling Ayars
Subject LCSH	Ayars, Rebecca Caudill, — 1899 – 1985. Pine Mountain Settlement School (Pine Mountain, Ky.) — History. Harlan County (Ky.) — History. Rural schools — Kentucky — History. Children’s stories, American 20th century. Students Juvenile fiction Students Juvenile non-fiction
Date	2026-03-18 aae
Publisher	Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Contributor	n/a
Type	Collections ; text ; image ;
Format	Original and copies of documents and correspondence in file folders in filing cabinet.
Source	Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Language	English
Relation	Is related to: Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Coverage Temporal	1899 – 1985
Coverage Spatial	Pine Mountain, KY ; Harlan County, KY ; Nashville, TN ; Poor Fork (Cumberland), KY ; Urbana, IL ; Champaign, IL ; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ; Chicago, IL ; Macon, GA, ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor	n/a
Description	Core documents, correspondence, writings, and administrative papers of xxxxxx ; clippings, photographs, books by or about xxxxx ;
Acquisition	n/d
Citation	“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY.
Processed By	Helen Hayes Wykle ; Ann Angel Eberhardt ;
Last Updated
Bibliography	Sources “Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame: Rebecca Caudill.” CARNEGIE CENTER for Literacy and Learning. https://carnegiecenterlex.org/hall-of-fame/rebecca-caudill/#:~:text=Born:%20Feb.,the%20University%20of%20Illinois%20campus. Internet resource. “Rebecca Caudill Ayars,” Series 09: BIOGRAPHY. Pine Mountain Settlement School Institutional Papers. Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. Internet resource. “Rebecca Caudill.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Caudill. Internet resource. “United States, Census, 1900”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M94D-WQL : Wed Oct 22 04:27:41 UTC 2025), Entry for George W Caudill and Susie S Caudill, 1900. Internet resource. “United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, Births, and Marriages, 1980-2015”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5W-S4ZP : Entry for Rebecca Caudill Ayars and James Ayars, accessed 03-16-2026. Internet resource. Bibliography Novels Barrie & Daughter.  New York: Viking Press, 1942. Tree of Freedom. New York: Viking Press, 1947. Saturday Cousins. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company, 1953. House of the Fifers. New York: David McKay Co., 1954. Susan Cornish. New York: Viking Press, 1955. Time for Lissa. New York: Thomas Nelson, & Sons, 1959. The Far-off Land. New York: Viking Press, 1964. Somebody Go and Bang a Drum. New York: Dutton, 1974. Series: The Fairchild Family Story: Happy Little Family. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1947. Schoolhouse in the Woods. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1949. Up and Down the River. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1951. Schoolroom in the Parlor. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1959. Collections: Contrary Jenkins.  New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1969. Home for Christmas: Stories for Young & Old. (with Pearl Buck, et al.)  Farmington, PA: Plough Publishing House, 2002. Picture Books: Higgins and the Great Big Scare. Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1960. The Best Loved Doll. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1962. A Pocket Full of Cricket. Henry Holt & Company, 1964. A Certain Small Shepherd. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1965. Did You Carry the Flag Today Charley? New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1966. Non-Fiction: Florence Nightingale. New York: Harper & Row, 1953. My Appalachia: A Reminiscence. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1966. Come Along. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1969. Wind, Sand, & Sky. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1976.

See Also:
REBECCA CAUDILL (AYARS) PMSS Little School Endorsement 1964

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