• By Sue deGuzman
• Posted Monday, October 9, 2023

"Going Down Tobacco Road": Author Talk with Gene Hoots

Gene Hoots, a native of Winston-Salem who worked for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for 21 years, will discuss his book, Going Down Tobacco Road: R. J. Reynolds' Tobacco Empire: The Gold Leaf and North Carolina. It is the story of how North Carolina became the heart of the tobacco industry and the importance of the gold leaf to the economy of the state for over 200 years.

Hoots shares about the impact the gold leaf had on robber barons, factory workers, farmers, and almost everyone else in the state. But it is also the story of an Empire whose profitability from a controversial product brought untold riches to businesses, governments, and several million people before causing its own destruction.

Lewisville Historical Society Presents ... is a bimonthly program of the Lewisville Historical Society and the Lewisville Branch Library. It is free and open to the public. Participants do not need to be members of the society to attend. The group will meet at the Mary Alice Warren Community Center in Lewisville. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Lewisville Branch at 336-703-2940 or the Lewisville Historical Society at 336-766-5842.

Going Down Tobacco Road: Author Talk with Gene Hoots
Monday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m.
Mary Alice Warren Community Center
7632 Warren Park Drive Lewisville, NC 27023
Driving instructions

All Forsyth County Public Library programs are free and open to the public.