On Feb. 17, 2011, The Story of Blind Boone, will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Daniel Boone Regional Library. Mike Shaw will discuss ragtime musician John William “Blind” Boone, one of Columbia’s most famous residents and give an update on the restoration of his historic Columbia home.

How could this be the cure to depression? The house at 10 N. Fourth St. is literally a monument to endurance, caring for each other and going beyond limitations. Boone, born in 1864 of a union between a former slave and a Civil War soldier, is proof that care and concern stepped beyond what should be. There is some evidence that his father sought to return to the mother of his child despite the chaos and demands of his military service requirements during the Civil War.

Then at 6 months old, Boone developed a fever and his eyes were removed. However, through the largess of his mother’s employer, Boone received an education, as outlined in a National Register of Historic Places document: “Francis Marion Cockrell — a former Confederate general and future U.S. Senator residing in Warrensburg in whose household Rachel was employed as a domestic — to accede to the mother’s petitions to facilitate her boy’s eduction by sending him to the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis.”

Again, signs of care and concern.

The list could go on but even the home shows the way to believing in a better life.  Boone’s home until 1927 at 10 N. Fourth St., once nearly derelict now has been renovated through the efforts of Columbia’s community members and is slated to become a museum with interactive displays.

On Thursday, Feb. 17, hear more about continuing renovation efforts and get rid of any remaining winter time blues by learning that care and concern can overcome any limitations. The presentation will be in the Columbia Public Library at 100 W. Broadway.