The Good Folks of Lennox Valley

Spring & Summer 1998

By: Kevin Slimp

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Followed by millions of readers in hundreds of newspapers across America since 2015, The Good Folks of Lennox Valley is the story of growing up in a small farming town during the spring and summer of 1998. Readers soon learn that Lennox Valley was anything but quiet and peaceful in the spring and summer of 1998. With Raymond Cooper converting the town's only radio station to an "all talk" format in an effort to wage his unannounced campaign for town mayor, things were bound to turn a little unorthadox. Most folks considered Raymond a political nut case. Cooper realized, however, that nut cases tend to attract other nut cases, and such was the case with his following. It didn’t take him too long to realize it only required 400 nut cases to win an election in The Valley, and that’s just what he intended to do. While Raymond was busy planning his secret campaign, the good folks at the Methodist Church were in for a surprise of their own. In May, they would learn the name of their soon-to-be appointed pastor, Sarah Hyden-Smith, The Valley's first female clergyperson. Never one to miss a beat, Iris Long served as editor of The Lennox Valley Hometown News. She knew Raymond Cooper was up to something and she was determined to find out what it was. Cooper's all-out war to discredit Iris divided The Valley between his supporters and those who trusted the words of a seasoned journalist like Iris Long.