Ballad Singer Bobby McMillon Tells the Legend of Frankie Silver

Come see folklorist Bobby McMillon perform "The Ballad of Frankie Silver" and other stories at North Asheville Library.

Bobby McMillon is a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award recipient and a relative of the Silver family. He grew up immersed in WNC folklore, listening to "booger tales, haint tales," and legends about the murder of his relative Charlie Silver. "The real storytelling," Bobby says, "was so intertwined that a bear tale or a fish tale or a witch tale or a tale of some history that had really happened—a family tale—they were all equally believable."

Bobby will be telling the story of Frankie Silver, who became the first white woman to be hung in Burke County after she was convicted of the murder of her husband in 1833. Frankie Silver's story has lived on for generations, preserved the ballads and folklore to be presented at this event.