About the Author - Cree Forman

Cree was born near Mauldin, SC. After high school she came to Charleston, worked in civil service during WW II and while here she met and married Phil Forman, a Navy Corpsman. Most of her married life was spent in Raleigh, NC with her husband and four children.

Cree began writing at age 69 to complete the cookbook Phil could not finish before his death. Soon after moving to SC she joined the SC Writers Workshop. Being associated with much younger writers she found the craft fascinating and at 78 she established her self-publishing business McCree Enterprises. She published her first book Phil and The French Country Inn in 2004. In June 2008 she self-published her second book The French – Captured Completely.

In July 2008, Cree was presented with the key to Selma for what she and her husband Phil did in establishing The French Country Inn there in 1975. When they opened the restaurant Phil said they were going to put Selma on “the Culinary Map.” Not only did they do this, but now when Cree mentions Selma (even in her talks in North and South Carolina), people no longer ask, “Selma, Alabama?” Cree says, “Now I like to think we put Selma on “The Map!” (In Cree’s 3rd book, due out in 2009, she tells how her family found out their first week in Selma, that this Selma was certainly “No Selma, Alabama!”).

Cree had come to the Selma Library for the first signing of her second book The French – Captured Completely. This was another first for Selma. Of this she says, “I feel it is only fitting for me to come here for the first book signing, since this is where it all began – Selma!”.

At 83 years of age, Cree does not have time to think of age and while “out there” selling her books herself, she continues to write and besides her 3rd book, she has two more books in progress – one a True Crime.

Cree also enjoys speaking to high school and college French and English classes of France and its culture. She loves talking to 5th graders and middle school children on her life as a child during the Great Depression and growing up as a teenager. “It is a great satisfaction to me to see the enthusiasm of these children to what life was like in my lifetime!”

Phil and grandson Phillip learning the "fine art" of
kneading dough while Cree looks on

Credits

Interviewed on the "I Promise" local ABC channel program after talking to six classes of 5th graders on "The Importance of Learning to Read and Write Well"

Participated in the Southern Writers Rally for Parents Anonymous, Goose Creek, SC

Recipient of key to town of Selma, NC in 2008

Freelance Writer

Author of two books on France

French Travel writer

“Pelzer” story in the premier copy of The Petrigue Review – the 2007 SC Writers Workshop Anthology

Featured in SCWW Newsletter - The Quill in 2002

Charter Member of Hat Ladies of Charleston, SC

Member of Alliance Francaise de Charleston

Accomplishments

President of Senior Friends

2003 Volunteer of the Year

Volunteer in Girl Scouting for nine years (Asst. Leader, Leader, and Organizer)

National Garden Club – Vice-president of neighborhood Garden Club in Raleigh, NC

Docent for Historic Charleston Foundation’s Spring Home and Garden Tours

Docent for the Charleston Preservation Society - Fall Home and Garden Tours

Friend of the Charleston County Library

Member of Center for Women

In honor of Older American’s Month, Cree’s story “My Life Today” was featured in a newsletter to employees of the Fidelity Company

Cree's Latest Release!