The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society has waived membership in the society for local Cedar Key residents who may wish to attend sessions of the conference taking place this weekend at the Cedar Key Community Center. Registration for the event is $40.00. The twentieth annual conference boasts distinguished speakers from eight states but it will also have speakers from Gainesville, Cross Creek as well as Cedar Key. Atlanta reporter and author Christena Bledsoe who keeps a house in Kiss Me Quick at Cedar Key will answer the question as to whether Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was right when she forbade condensation of her novels by Reader`s Digest. Several Cedar Key students will present their award winning papers sponsored by principal Sue Ice and their teacher Jessica Adams. The Dessie Smith Prescott Scholarship will be awarded to Santa Fe Community College student Kevin Stone. A retired American soldier who works part time in the college`s Veterans Affairs office while majoring in cardiovascular technology. Two featured speakers who grew up at Cross Creek will share their remembrances of Marjorie. J. T. Glisson, artist, sculptor and author and Ernest Bass retired pastor have captivated the Society in the past. Also on the program is Valerie Rivers, present manager of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Historic Site. Featured speaker Dr. Michael Gannon will join Dr. Kevin Me Carthy, both retired professors of History and English at the University of Florida. The Sacred Nature - Spirituality in Cross Creek is addressed by John Stewart, graduate student at the University of Central Florida. Activist and author Stetson Kennedy of St. Augustine will tell of his actual experiences with Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings before and after she left Cross Creek. Two made for television Florida documentaries will be introduced: Keith Bollum and Alan Saperstein`s adaptation of David T. Warner`s "Vanishing Florida" and Bill Belleville and Leslie Poole`s "In Marjorie`s Wake" - commissioned in part by the MKR Society. | 
