Area residents are invited to join the St. Margaret’s School community when author Ella E. Schneider Hilton speaks about her book, Displaced Person: A Girl’s Life in Russia, Germany, and America, on Thursday, November 3 at 6:30 p.m. The presentation will take place in the Chapel, located on the ground level of St. Margaret’s Hall.

Hilton’s memoir, published by the Louisiana State University Press and nominated for the National Book Award, details a life in pursuit of education. Having lost her father during the Nazi invasion of Russia in World War II, Hilton spent her youth in German refugee camps until her mother’s remarriage brought the family into indentured servitude in Mississippi, where they were forced to pick cotton.

What is extraordinary about Hilton’s account is not the sequence of events that brought her to America, but the spirit and determination with which she chose to live. Her story shows that one can lead the life one chooses, even in the face of enormous adversity.

The SMS Speakers Series is a series of free, public presentations sponsored by St. Margaret’s School. Future programs include storyteller Les Schaffer on Thursday, December 8 at 6:30 p.m.., Mike Roberts of Return to Nature, Inc. on Wednesday, February 15 and mystery novelist Ted Blain of Woodbury Forest School on an April date to be announced.

For more information, contact program coordinator Tobey Taliaferro at (804) 443-3357.