"Stella" Has Historical Relevance To Dearborn County

Thomas Fahey has written a 252-page historical fiction about his mother and "the story she buried with her parents".

Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) – A Cincinnati man with local ties has turned a true tale into a 252-page work of historical fiction.

Thomas Fahey is the author of STELLA , a story with historical relevance to Dearborn County. Prior to writing the book, Fahey spent 45 years in Supermarket Retail working in management, buying, human resources, and merchandising. He split his career with Kroger and Meijer with five years sandwiched in between in his own business.

His book tells the story of his mother, Stella Mae Lange Fahey. She was 15-years-old when her dad and Dearborn County Sheriff, Herman Thomas Lange, was killed in the line of duty in December of 1929. 

Following Herman's death, his wife, Mayme Lange was appointed sheriff, becoming the first woman sheriff in the state of Indiana.

Stella lived through those moments. She even lived in the jailhouse, according to Fahey. 

Fahey says his mother buried her grief-filled story and never spoke to her family about the incident. That didn't stop Fahey from finding some things out for himself. A couple of events really set him in motion to gather information and start writing. 

The first was when Stella was put into a nursing home in Lawrenceburg with Alzheimers. During his weekly visits to see his mother, Fahey would spend time at the Lawrenceburg Public Library researching. 

Then in 2009, then Dearborn County Sheriff Dave Lusby contacted Fahey about his grandfather in an effort to get his name added to the national memorial in Washington, D.C. for slain police officers. Herman Thomas Lange's name was eventually added to the memorial in May of 2010. 

"That really set me loose to go out and get more and more," said Fahey. 

When Fahey retired in 2012, he "really went to town and started writing," he tells Eagle Country 99.3.

All in all, it took Fahey 20 or more years to gather research and find the words to form the historical fiction STELLA. Along the way he wrote a book that read like an encyclopedia, but one day things clicked when his wife helped him realize that the story was mostly about how Herman's death affected Stella and Mayme. 

“It is a fiction only in the thoughts I drew from my Mom’s mind and the words I attributed as coming from her mouth and the mouths of other characters in the book,” said Fahey. “The facts of who, what, when, where, how, and why are all true to my research.”

With the help of a lot of people, Fahey was able to self-publish STELLA. The first edition was released in March.  

Copies of STELLA are on sale now at www.amazon.com. 

"If you love the area of southeast Indiana, you'll love this book," said Fahey.