Harden, John, 1903-1985

Born in 1903 in Graham, N.C., the son of Peter Ray and Nettie Cayce Abbott Harden, John William Harden worked for the Burlington Evening Times and the Raleigh News and Observer before entering the University of North Carolina at the age of 20. While at Chapel Hill, he worked under Bob Madry, head of the University News Bureau. On graduation in 1927, Harden joined the Charlotte News as a reporter and columnist, working there until 1937 when he became news editor of the Salisbury Evening Post. In 1944, Harden became executive news director of the Greensboro Daily News . That same year, he was named director of public relations in R. Gregg Cherry's gubernatorial campaign.

After Cherry's inauguration, Harden was appointed executive secretary to the governor, and wrote Governor Cherry's letter book. While living in Raleigh, he moderated a series of programs on radio station WPTF on Tales of Tar Heelia . Drawing from his personal file of ghost stories and mysteries, he continued this program for eighteen months during 1946-1947. Out of this grew two books, The Devil's Tramping Ground and Other North Carolina Mysteries (1949) and Tar Heel Ghosts (1954), both published by The University of North Carolina Press.

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