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In the pages of The Cunninghams: A Legacy of Memphis, the reader will find the answers to several burning questions, such as:

Will a night of passion with Robert W. Cunningham blossom into something more for Angie MacFee….Can a man who has been, and will continue to be, a deadly killer become a good and proper stepfather?….How can two small boys, uprooted from a frontier life they know, find growth and success in a new city?….Can a young daughter overcome a disaster similar to her mother’s earlier tragedy, and move ahead?….Will a dread disease more than claim the lives of beloved family members, and rip the family apart?….Can the Cunninghams survive a move away from Memphis for almost fifty years and survive intact to return?

The majestic Cunningham love story mirrors the varied history of the beautiful Bluff City – Memphis.

Bold, sprawling, and bawdy, in this historical novel the Cunninghams’ story creates a gripping legacy fueled by tragedy, triumph, and redemption over the course of almost a hundred years. Enjoy meeting this wonderful family and city while you watch for The Cunninghams Two, coming very soon!!

It might be hard to imagine the 20th-largest city in the United States as a frontier town, but that’s what Memphis – and indeed many other cities – was in its infancy.

Established and laid out by Andrew Jackson, John Overton, and James Winchester as early as 1819, the town was going and growing by 1823, and was granted a charter in 1829. From there, it grew rapidly into a transportation nexus and into the cotton-grading capital of the United States, and indeed, the world. It is arguable that fully half the families which claim a western heritage had a progenitor who began that westward move by crossing the Mississippi River – the western boundary of civilization in the early 1800s – at Memphis. Many passed through, but many fell in love with the place and stayed, causing the Bluff City to have quite a varied and interesting population. During the occupation by Union forces during the Civil War, Union commander Ulysses S. Grant declared it the” Gomorrah of the South”, such difficulty did he have in keeping order.

The story of the Cunningham family is inexorably woven in and out of the varied, poignant, and often topsy-turvy history of the lovely city situated high on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River.

Come and be enthralled by this slice of Americana and experience action, passion, and excitement along the way – with the Cunninghams!