Deb Goodrich

Born and raised in southwestern Virginia on the North Carolina border, Deb is the daughter of a Baptist preacher who was also at various times a salesman and a politician--the source of her public speaking skills. Deb has said life in the Blue Ridge Mountains had a soundtrack--bluegrass and old time music proliferated. She was news director at WPAQ Radio, a pioneer in the preservation of roots music. As a child she accompanied her grandmother to the family cemetery and fell in love with history. Tending graves and hearing stories, she came to understand that those who had passed had been as fully alive as she--an understanding that is central to interpreting history. With a focus on the era of Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War, she broadened her studies by adding the American West. A popular speaker, Deb brings history to life. She has been a talking head in numerous documentaries including the Emmy-award-winning American Artist: The Life and Times of George Caleb Bingham and The Road to Valhalla (the Kansas/Missouri border war), recipient of the Wrangler Award. She appeared in AHC's Gunslingers Series on Wild Bill Hickok and the History Channel's States and Aftershock. She is writing a biography and screenplay on Charles Curtis, our only Native American Vice President. Deb lives in western Kansas where she is the Garvey Historian in Residence at the Fort Wallace Museum and the host of Around Kansas weekly TV show. Her articles have appeared in national publications including Wild West Magazine and Armchair General Magazine. Her books include the Civil War in Kansas and Kansas Forts and Bases. She and filmmaker Ken Spurgeon are in the production stages of a new documentary series, Westward.