Bright lights illuminated the showcases displaying O’Connor’s childhood photos, her christening gown, books from her private library, and her collected works translated into 16 languages.

Surrounded by furniture from the O’Connor family farm, Andalusia, and the family home on Greene Street, the cameraman zoomed in on O’Connor’s photo in her senior yearbook while the soundman readied the mike.

At center stage, Dr. Bruce Gentry, Professor of English and editor of Flannery O’Connor Review, looked into the camera and told tales about Georgia College’s most famous alumna.

"She began to read at the age of 3,” Gentry said. “She not only was a great writer but a fine artist as well.”

PBS Producer Gail Findley traveled from New York to learn about O’Connor for an upcoming broadcast of “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.”

O’Connor’s influence on today’s writers, artists and musicians is a topic for an upcoming episode of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, aired locally on Georgia Public Broadcast.

The crew also visited Andalusia and filmed Flannery’s room there and outside shots of the barn, pond and tree lines, according to Craig Amason, Executive Director of the Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation.

The O’Connor episode is expected to air as early Saturday, Nov. 21, and will be available online at PBS.org/religion after the broadcast.

“Flannery O’Connor’s popularity is on the upswing,” Findley said, “especially since the release of Brad Gooch’s biography Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor released earlier this year. The upcoming segment arose from the popularity of Gooch’s biography that looks at the influence of religion in Flannery’s works often overlooked by the general reader.”

O’Connor’s influence continues to influence today’s pop culture, Gentry explained during the show’s taping.

“In television, there’s the final segment of last year’s cable show ‘Lost,’ in which ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge,’ O’Connor’s posthumous story collection, figured prominently,” Gentry said. “Andtalk-show host Conan O’Brien is a long-time O’Connor fan.”

O’Connor’s influence on big-screen movies includes the Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, John Waters, and Tommy Lee Jones as fans of O’Connor.

And in music, Bruce Springsteen’s album ‘Nebraska’ was largely a response to O’Connor, Gentry said.

“Other musicians include Lucinda Williams (daughter of the poet Miller Williams), whose songs reflect an O’Connor influence, and Bono of the band U2, who paid tribute to O’Connor when he won a Grammy,” Gentry said. “And modern dance figures Bill T. Jones and Twyla Tharp also have responded creatively to O’Connor’s works.”

The Flannery O’Connor Room and Andalusia also will be featured in an upcoming segment Georgia Public Broadcast segment of “Georgia Traveler.”

“It’s certainly nice to see PBS visit Milledgeville to create a segment of ‘Religion and Ethics Newsweekly,’ concerning Flannery O’Connor as an increasingly significant figure,” Gentry said.