Sherri Stephens Knight

A sixth-generation Texan, Sherri Knight grew up on a dairy farm in rural Erath County located in North Central Texas. Ms. Knight took her all-level teaching certificate throughout the state of Texas making stops at Houston, Mineral Wells, Callisburg, Childress, Tolar, San Antonio, and Mansfield school districts, completing 31 total years in the classroom. Besides teaching, Ms. Knight has also been a legal secretary and art promoter and is a member of Women Writing the West.

Her numerous awards include Outstanding History Teacher – UTSA Regional History Fair, Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities presented by the Texas Council for Humanities, Teacher of the Year – East Central High School (San Antonio), National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar, Fulbright-Hays Summer Abroad Scholar, and Texas Exes Award for Excellence in Education – University of Texas at Austin.

Ms. Knight’s first effort, Tom P’s Fiddle, A True Texas Tale, is a biography of her great great uncle who ran afoul of the law in Hill County in the 1880s. Especially evident is the extensive research that went into authenticating the events of Tom Varnell’s life. The book was selected as one of three finalists in the nonfiction category at the North Texas Book Festival in 2008.

Using her skills from researching the legal system in Texas during the nineteenth century necessary to bring the story of Tom P Varnell to the printed page, Ms. Knight has also completed her next book centered around the history of the district court of Erath County during the nineteenth century – Vigilantes to Verdicts, Stories from a Texas District Court.

She and her husband, Arden Knight, reside in Stephenville, TX.