Just nine months before writer and painter Berry Fleming died at the age of 90 on Sept. 15, 1989 in his native Augusta, the Georgia Senate passed a resolution commending him for his literary contributions to the state.

Mr. Fleming, by that time, had authored about 20 books, mostly novels, beginning with his 1927 adventure story, The Conqueror's Stone, about a bloodthirsty pirate off the South Carolina coast.

Other noted books by Mr. Fleming include Siesta, 1935; The Lightwood Tree, 1947; The Fortune Tellers, 1951; Carnival, 1953; The Winter Rider, 1960; Lucinderella, 1967; The Acrobats, 1969; The Make-Believers, 1972; Two Tales for Autumn, 1979; The Affair at Honey Hill, 1981; Country Wedding, 1983; and The Bookman's Tale and Others, 1985.

Mr. Fleming's most famous book, Colonel Effingham's Raid, a 1943 semi-novel, was about the Cracker Party, a small group of political bosses who had control of the Augusta and Richmond County governments. It was made into a 20th Century Fox movie of the same name starring Savannah-born actor Charles Coburn.

Mr. Fleming's original goal, and life-long passion, was painting. He studied in 1946 at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, with Lamar Dodd at the University of Georgia and at the University of Wisconsin. He also studied in 1953 with the Art Students League in New York.

In June 1973, Mr. Fleming became one of first winners of the Governor's Awards in the Arts program with the award presented by then Gov. Jimmy Carter.