Meet the Author: Paul T O'Connor
Schedule
Thu, 04 Jun, 2026 at 02:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
555 E Connecticut Avenue, PO Box 939, Southern Pines, NC, United States, North Carolina 28388 | Southern Pines, NC
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Paul T. O'Connor is a retired journalist and journalism professor who spent more than 40 years writing for North Carolina newspapers, primarily covering state politics as a columnist and editorial writer. Simultaneously, he taught for 30 years at UNC-Chapel Hill's journalism school and other universities. A Notre Dame and University of Minnesota graduate, he lives in Durham, N.C.Scheduled for publication by Torchflame Books on May 26, 2026, “The Missing Child: The Life She Lived and The Life She Missed” is Paul T. O’Connor’s chronicle of his research into his mother’s life and the lives of the family that gave her away at the age of one month. It is his first book after he spent his career writing for newspapers and teaching. The story opens with O’Connor and his sister finding their mother’s private papers just hours after they buried her and proceeds as he searches public records, private memorabilia and DNA results. It is a genealogical mystery and a paean to a remarkably resilient woman all in one.
The Missing Child: It is a story both sad and uplifting, of a girl who refused to be defeated by life and who grew into a strong, independent and resourceful woman. As a family member once said, “She was a Ms. before the term was invented.” It is also the story of the family that placed her in Hartford’s St. Agnes Home in 1917 and never came back to reclaim her, but which did not forget “the missing child.” Charlotte Frazier O’Connor did not change the world, but she changed the lives of the people around her and always for the good.
Free and open to the public
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Where is it happening?
555 E Connecticut Avenue, PO Box 939, Southern Pines, NC, United States, North Carolina 28388Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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