Margaret Britton Vaughn (July 16, 1938 – June 27, 2026) was an American poet laureate.Margaret Britton Vaughn: Poet Laureate of Tennessee - 11/10/2002 - Chattanoogan.com
Background Vaughn was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on July 16, 1938. Her father, Winfred Vaughn, a fire fighter, was killed in the line of duty when Vaughn was 9 months old. When Vaughn was four years old she moved with her remarried mother and brother to Gulfport, Mississippi.
She was baptized Methodist the Methodist church and raised in the Church of Christ. She attended the Episcopal Church. Her belief in hypocrisy and unnecessary rules of the church inspired her book You're Laughing, Ain’t Ya, God?
Vaughn lived in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and was frequently visited by people seeking mentorship, advice and conversations about poetry. Celebrity visitors include Bill Moyers and Maya Angelou. Vaughn overcame both kidney and breast cancer.
She was friends with late country singer Loretta Lynn, whom she met through the Wilburn brothers in the 1960s. They bonded over similar writing styles and collaborated throughout their careers. Vaughn helped write Lynn's Grammy-nominated 2004 song "Miss Being Mrs. Lynn".
Vaughn died on June 27, 2026, at the age of 87.
Career Vaughn attended Perkinston Junior College and transferred to Mississippi Southern College, but she ultimately left this school without a degree in her senior year. Twenty-five years later, she completed her degree at Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in theater.
Vaughn has expressed that the talents of poetry are inherited and their pursuit inevitable. She herself gave up her career of seventeen years in advertising to pursue writing full time, to her family and friends’ dismay. She began this transition by working in a newspaper to build her skills then fully committing to poetry. She is the only recipient of the Mark Twain fellowship from Elmira College. Her time in a place Mark Twain once lived in inspired her work, Foretasting Heaven: Conversations with Twain at Quarry Farm.
She described her writing as communicating the experience of living in small towns. From a young age, she was inspired by and heavily influenced by country music and wrote poems and songs. She has also written plays performed at the numerous Tennessee theaters; her most famous play, I Wonder if Eleanor Roosevelt Ever Made a Quilt, was performed at the National Quilter's Convention.
In 1995, the Tennessee state legislature selected Vaughn to be Tennessee's poet laureate citing many of the plays, collections, and books Vaughn wrote throughout her career and her performances and outreach throughout the state of Tennessee.Tennessee State, Legislature. House of Representatives Resolution No. 0133. State of Tennessee, 8 March 1995. http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/99/Bill/HJR0133.PDF As poet laureate, Vaughn wrote Tennessee's bicentennial poem, inaugural poems for many Tennessee governors including current governor, Bill Lee, and a poem to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the US Air Force.
Bibliography + List of Vaughn's published Written WorksTitleYear PublishedPublisherPagesNotes50 Years of Saturday Nights: (poems) as told by the Old Spry herself1975Magluce Publishing Company52Grand ole Saturday Nights1990Bell Buckle Press96Kin1994Iris Press75The light in the kitchen window: poems1994Iris Press74Acres that Grow Stones: poetry1996Bell Buckle Press53Southern Voices in Every Direction1996Bell Buckle Press159co-author: Su Ellen AlfredLife's Down to Old Women's Shoes: poetry and personal essays1997Bell Buckle Press61Bell Buckle Biscuits: stories1999Bell Buckle Press128The Birthday Dolly2000Bell Buckle Press47co-authors: Carole Brown Knuth, Lucille LundquistForetasting Heaven: talking to Twain at Quarry Farm2002Bell Buckle Press55America Showing her Colors in Black and White: poetry and photography2002Bell Buckle Press -You're Laughing, ain't ya God?2006Bell Buckle Press52When Grown Ups Play Children's Games2006Bell Buckle Press51The Other Sun of God2010Bell Buckle Press37Mary Rebecca, Bubba, and Me2010Bell Buckle Press89Shades of Walter Inglis Anderson2012Bell Buckle Press79co-author: Carole Brown KnuthOut of the Box2015Bell Buckle Press72co-authors: Carole Brown Knuth, Kory Wells
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