There are only two kinds of people in Cherokee County — those who know Billy Godfrey, and those who just got here. That statement isn't much of a joke, so it's a good thing it is just about the unvarnished truth.

Godfrey, a retired educator, has taught at most of the schools in the county, coaching several sports along the way. Most of the people who attended school in Cherokee County from the 1950s to the '80s either had him as a teacher or knew someone else who did.

After he retired from in front of the blackboard in 1981, he spent another 12 years on the Board of Education looking after another generation of kids as they made their way through the local school system.

To say that Godfrey, 91, told a funny story or two along the way would be the understatement of the year. In fact, he told so many – about his early years growing up in the Alexis community, serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, and the high school shenanigans he witnessed over the years as a coach and teacher – that it finally occurred to him to have them all written down, bound and covered, and shipped to him by the hundreds.

The 120-page book, titled “Here Come the Marines,” is a personal, first-person account of “a very colorful and active man.” Godfrey will be selling and signing his book Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Cherokee County Historical Museum on Main Street in Centre.

“I hated a quiet classroom so I would tell [my students] a joke and it would help make them want to learn,” says Godfrey, recalling his initial motivation to spin the occasional yarn.

Godfrey said he is selling the books for $12 each, which is exactly what it cost him to have them printed.

“I'm not looking to make money,” he says. “I have stories I've collected over the years that I think are pretty funny, and I think other people will think so, too, if they'll read it.”