Kermit Hunter; Prolific Writer of Outdoor Dramas

Kermit Hunter, 90, one of the nation’s most prolific authors of outdoor historical dramas. Hunter wrote 42 of the plays, which dramatize historical events on or near the sites where they occurred and are most popular in the South as a summertime entertainment. His best-known and most-produced work was “Unto These Hills,” which tells the story of the “Trail of Tears,” as the removal of Cherokee Indians from North Carolina to Oklahoma was called. Hunter wrote it in 1950 as his master’s thesis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while studying under Paul Green, considered the founder of the outdoor drama movement. Hunter, a West Virginia native, discovered his talent for the outdoor epic after working as a newspaper reporter and serving as an Army officer during World War II. On April 11 of congestive heart failure in Dallas.