Book Chat: The Funeral Dress by Susan Gregg Gilmore

Important Update Regarding Meeting Usage During Library Renovation

During 2026, we will be undergoing a renovation to better serve the people of Dearborn County. 

Due to the renovation, access to the Youth Services Department will be closed to the public during January and February. You will still be able to use the Ewbank Meeting Room throughout this closure, but our procedures for using the room have been modified:

  • Please enter the library via the High St. entrance. This entrance provides direct access to the Ewbank Meeting Room only. To access other areas of the library, you must use the Mary St. or Parking Lot entrances.
  • Once inside, please call our Adult Services Department at 812-537-2775 Ext. 1125. Let us know that you have arrived and provide your group's name. A staff member will come to unlock the room for your group.
  • If you need any assistance at any time during your meeting, please call 812-537-2775 Ext. 1125 and a staff member will come to help.
  • When your meeting has finished, please call 812-537-2775 Ext. 1125 again to let us know. Please leave your clipboard in the room. A staff member will come to lock the room and collect the clipboard. There is no need to wait for us.

We are excited to share our upgraded spaces with you once renovations are complete. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to improve your library.

Program Type:

Book Club

Age Group:

Adults
Please note you are looking at an event that has already happened.
  • Registration is required for this event.
  • Registration is no longer available for this event.

Program Description

Book Chat is a monthly book discussion group. March's book is The Funeral Dress by Susan Gregg Gilmore.

Emmalee Bullard and her new baby are on their own. Or so she thinks, until Leona Lane, the older seamstress who sat by her side at the local shirt factory where both women worked as collar makers, insists Emmalee come and live with her. But just as Emmalee prepares to escape her hardscrabble life in Red Chert Holler, Leona dies tragically. 

Grief-stricken, Emmalee decides she’ll make Leona’s burying dress. There are plenty of people who don't think the unmarried Emmalee should design a dress for a Christian woman--or care for a child on her own--but with every stitch, Emmalee struggles to do what is right for her daughter and to honor Leona the best way she can, finding unlikely support among an indomitable group of seamstresses and the town’s funeral director. In a moving tale exploring Southern spirit and camaraderie among working women, a young mother will compel a town to become a community.