Meet our Mid-Valley: Monmouth author Amy Lemco dives into history

This is part of a weekly series introducing readers to individuals who are passionate about our Mid-Valley community.

Amy Lemco lives a lot of her life in the past.

When she finds a historical subject that interests her, she has a hard time letting go.

The Monmouth resident has a college degree in history and creative writing, has been on the Monmouth Historic Commission since 2022, and her first full-length, non-fiction book, "Wading In: Desegregation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast," was published Sept. 11 by University Press of Mississippi.

Growing up in Biloxi, Mississippi, she didn’t learn about the history she explores in the book.

“I don’t remember that we covered that, the local events,” Lemco said. “I was an adult the first time. That’s the first time I thought about what under-told history should I write?”

A packed life

In the rest of her life, Lemco is a constant blur of motion.

Besides her unpaid position on the historic commission, she teaches an online course on creative writing to English Language Learners, makes deliveries through DoorDash and works weekends at the Donut Bar, a food truck in Monmouth.

That goes along with spending time with her husband, Richie Jaramillo, and their two children. And she finds time to research and write books.

Lemco has self-published a string of historical fiction, family history and children’s books since 2016. "Wading In" is the first one to be picked up by a major publisher.

She first wrote it as a children’s book. When she shopped it to University of Mississippi Press, the editor told her they didn’t publish children’s books, but said they would be interested in publishing a full-length book on the topic.

Her answer was: “I would absolutely sit down right now and do four months of intense research 12 hours a day.”

The book follows civil rights leader Dr. Gilbert Mason as he led the effort to desegregate Biloxi Beach and other beaches in Mississippi.

Lemco said the efforts of Mason and others weren’t taught to her in Biloxi schools.

“I just always like the story of an underdog and for that information to be out here,” she said.

Ties to Oregon

For someone who loves history, Lemco admits she doesn’t do a great job of keeping track of her own.

“I have no concept of time,” Lemco said.

But Lemco was born in Oregon and moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, where she lived until age 14. After that, she split time between her father’s home in Bonney Lake, Washington, and Mississippi.

Lemco has held a long list of jobs like delivering pizza and working in the beauty department of a grocery store.

Somewhere along the line, Lemco decided she wanted to be a writer. She figured the best way to do that was to go to school to become a massage therapist. It made sense to her at the time.

That didn’t work that well, but she followed a friend from that school to Ashland after Hurricane Katrina.

She supported herself with jobs like barista and making bagels. And she met Richie there.

“He was the DJ at a Spanish restaurant that converted to a Salsa bar at nighttime and I would go dancing,” Lemco said.

They married and moved to Virginia, where Amy went to college at Emory & Henry College and got a degree while pregnant.

That was around the time she self-published her first book of historical fiction, "The Song of the Phoenix." A string of books have followed.

Choosing Monmouth

She and her family decided to move to Monmouth in 2020.

“We moved here sight unseen,” Lemco said. “Never been here, never visited. That was 2020. We moved in the middle of the pandemic.”

In choosing a new home, she was looking for an area with colleges around it so she could go to graduate school.

But she didn’t get into the master’s program to which she applied, so she decided to write what became "Wading In."

She said she doesn’t have a specific idea to write a book about Monmouth yet but has several ideas.

Lemco likes the community and is exploring its history.

“Now I am invested,” Lemco said. “I am invested in both of the project ideas I’m thinking about.”

If you have an idea for someone we should profile for this series, please email Statesman Journal senior news editor Alia Beard Rau at arau@gannett.com

Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Author Amy Lemco publishes first full-length, non-fiction book