August 17, 1897

Author Charlie May Simon was born in Monticello (Drew County). She wrote twenty-seven books for children and adults, including Straw in the Sun and the The Sharecropper. In 1936, she divorced her husband Howard Simon and married renowned poet John Gould Fletcher. To honor Simon’s body of work, the Arkansas Department of Education named the Children’s Literature Award in Arkansas the Charlie May Simon Award in 1971.