If you love a story about community and the “can do” spirit of small-town America, then PLUCK, PERSEVERANCE, AND PAINT is a must read. This wonderful book tells the story of a small southern town that shaped the lives and values of men and women who now live around the world. The roots of my family tree run deep in Apex (my mother and grandmother were born there). You will smile and laugh and often wonder about the small town in your own life. Hopefully there is a little bit of Apex in all of us. This is a triumphant American story.
Byron Pitts, Co-Anchor, ABC Nightline

Pluck, Perseverance and Paint brings pride both to those who trace their roots to Apex’s beginning as the “Village of Log Pond” and to those who now make up the eclectic metropolitan community that Apex has become.  From the beginning in the early 1800’s through the War Between the States, the dawn of a new century, the Great Depression and WWII: Toby, Warren and their family have created a base for intellectual endeavors as well as a platform for future historians to build upon.  It’s a history in the spirit of the oral history tradition that has sustained us in the south, sharing our history, while preserving our heritage.

Mack Thorpe – Proprietor, The Rusty Bucket; President, Apex Historical Society

“There’s so much rich history on each page. My book is on my coffee table, and everyone that comes by reads it. Then they buy their own copy. If you buy only one book this year, make it this one.”

Doris Battle, North Carolina Forgotten History

Pluck, Perseverance and Paint exemplifies good local history: it is packed with interesting details, provides careful attention to matters economic, social, cultural, and religious, gives a vivid sense of place, and is alert to how the region has changed over time. It has just the right mix of precise information and general observations, and the wonderful period photographs sprinkled throughout the text add immeasurably to the pleasure of the book. I strongly recommend this volume to anyone from Apex and to others simply interested in well-told local history.

John B. Boles, William P. Hobby Professor of History, Rice University and Editor, Journal of Southern History

Books of this genre are often conglomerations of information presented as fact with no analysis of material or citation of sources. Pluck, Perseverance, and Paint does not fall into that category. It is a history of a town with thoughtful analysis, respectful attention to detail, and careful citations. Photographs make it shine.

Debra A. Blake, North Carolina Historical Review

This handsome book is much more than a record of events in a small Southern town. The authors fill its pages not only with documented historical facts but also with recollections of “the way things were” in earlier times—such as what it was like for families to live through the deadly 1918 ‘flu epidemic, or how Apexians were wont to “sleep lightly” when gypsies passed through town.  The book is full of surprises: how to kill a chicken or make lye soap or sucker tobacco. Both entertaining and enlightening are numerous quaint sayings from old-time Apex sages. Among them is the advice, “Don’t be talkin’ when you should be listenin’.” The reader will be grateful that these Apex historians obviously did a great deal of “listenin’” and now have been “talkin’” and sharing what they heard with readers in the pages of this fascinating book.

Elizabeth Reid Murray, author, Wake: Capital County of North Carolina