Award-winning author Linda Kenney Miller, who wrote Beacon on the Hill, spent her childhood summers at Oak Bluffs. Her grandfather, John A. Kenney, vacationed on the Vineyard ever since 1913 when his wife’s family first bought the Kenney cottage on Huntington avenue.

John A. Kenney’s life story is the subject of Beacon on the Hill. Kenney, the son of ex-slaves, raised himself up to become a doctor and the personal assistant to Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver at Tuskegee. He would drive from Tuskegee to the Vineyard each year to enjoy the freedoms the Island provided from the racial strife in Alabama.

Valuable manuscripts and journals used in the book were discovered underneath the Oak Bluffs cottage in 2002. The Kenney family continues the tradition of vacationing on the Vineyard to this day. The book includes a chapter on the delights of Oak Bluffs and Martha’s Vineyard.

Linda will be in Oak Bluffs on August 26 for a book signing at 35 Tuckernuck from 5 to 7 p.m. Visit lindakenneymiller.com for more information on the book and the author.