Sandra Stephens Turner

Sandra Turner wrote her Sgt. York book originally as a thesis for a master's degree in Communications at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

She is a graduate of Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute, Jamestown, Tennessee, as were her mother, her sister, and her daughter, plus numerous extended family members.

"My daddy took me as a little girl to meet Sergeant York at his home once in the 1950s. The hero was not well at the time, but I still remember his smile and warm greeting."

Turner previously taught English at York Institute. (Her daughter Dr. Erin Smith also taught English there for several years.) She worked as a writer/editor for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga and as a reporter for the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville and for the Herald Citizen in Cookeville. She was editor of a weekly newspaper in Campbell County, Tennessee.

Currently, since 1981, she writes, edits, and publishes a Christian newsletter for singles. She has edited books for authors and has written many hundreds of resumes for an online church staffing service. She is currently a volunteer publicist for the Allardt Great Pumpkin Festival and Weigh-off, held each year the first Saturday in October in Allardt, Tennessee.