Louisa Venable Kyle (August 11, 1903 – October 24, 1999) was an American historian, author and journalist. She wrote works of fiction based on the history of her home state of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
.
Biography
Born in
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
Lasell Seminary
Lasell University (LU) is a private university in Newton, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1851 as a women's seminary. It became a college in 1932, a four-year institution in 1989, coeducational in 1997, and a university proper in ...
. In the 1950s she wrote for ''
The Virginian-Pilot
''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Hampton Roads, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virgi ...
'' and ''The Portsmouth Star''. She wrote about the first minister to
Knotts Island
Knotts Island is a marshy island and a small unincorporated community. The island is shared by Currituck County, North Carolina and Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States, bounded by the Currituck Sound, North Landing River, Back Bay, and K ...
on
Currituck Sound
Currituck Sound () , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the
In November 1956, she reported the opening of land between Seashore State Park and Crystal Lake.
Kyle was married to William Emmett Kyle (1896–1972). They had three daughters. She was one of the founding members of the Princess Anne County Historical Society. She died in
Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the List of cities in Virginia, most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeaster ...
.
Literary works
Kyle wrote ''Historical Data on Little Neck Section of Princess Anne County'', which was published in 1960. ''The History of Eastern Shore Chapel and Lynnhaven Parish, 1642–1969'' appeared in 1969.
''The Witch of Pungo and Other Historical Stories of the Early Colonies'' is a fiction book written for children, with the tales of seven folk tales from the history of
Princess Anne County
County of Princess Anne is a former county in the British Colony of Virginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, first incorporated in 1691. The county was merged into the city of Virginia Beach
on January 1, 1963, ceasing to ...
, including "Christmas at Adam Thoroughgood's House" and ''Blackbeard's Treasure''. The historical background of each story is provided at the end of the story. ''The Witch of Pungo'' is based on Grace Sherwood, a woman who was accused of witchcraft in February 1706 and tried by ducking: "If Grace would float in consecrated water, as she did after being ducked in the Lynnhaven River off what is now called Witchduck Point, then she was deemed guilty of witchcraft". Sherwood spent seven years in jail and then lived on a farm granted by Governor
Alexander Spotswood
Major-General Alexander Spotswood (12 December 1676 – 7 June 1740) was a British army officer, explorer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722. After an unsatisfactory military career, in 1710 ...
. The book was published in 1973 by Printcraft Press, Portsmouth, Virginia, reissued in 1978 in Four O'Clock Farms Publishing Company, and again in 1988.
Kyle's book ''Ram Lam'' (1975) was published by the Four O'Clock Farms Publishing Company. Her memoir, ''My Virginia Childhood: The Years 1903-1914'', was published in 1976. Other works included ''A Country Woman's Scrapbook'' (1980) and ''A Country Woman's Christmas'' (1993).