Meet Carolyn Yeldell Staley at GC Library, October 21.
The Garland County Historical Society (GCHS) will present Carolyn Yeldell Staley discussing her memoir, The Boy Next Door: My Sixty-Year Friendship with Bill Clinton, at its meeting at noon, Tuesday, October 21, at the Garland County Library at 1427 Malvern Ave, in Hot Springs.
When Clinton moved to Scully Street in Hot Springs in 1961, his house was next to Yeldell’s. When he walked next door one day to ask her to accompany his saxophone at upcoming state recitals, the fifteen-year-olds began a six-decade friendship.
Clinton himself penned the foreword for Staley’s book. “It’s almost impossible to put into a few words what our friendship of more than 60 years has meant,” he writes. “There are so many stories, you’d have to write a book. I’m grateful to Carolyn for doing just that.”
Her memoir has been praised as captivating, insightful, humorous, and uplifting. During her program, she will “talk about what our friendship has been like, our experiences since we were 15, living in Little Rock, being neighbors in high school and in D.C., and what it’s like to have Bill Clinton as a friend.”
Staley is a writer, pastor, musician, arts and literacy advocate, and former director of state and federal agencies, both under the Clinton administration, as well as in Arkansas. Her unique perspective into Bill Clinton’s life offers a rare look into the former President’s formative years and years of public service.
For more information about the Historical Society, follow on Facebook: Garland County Historical Society, or visit GarlandCountyHistoricalSociety.com.
