Alberta Leona Pierson Hannum (August 3, 1906 – February 18, 1985) was an author best known for her best-selling novel Roseanna McCoy, a fictionalized account of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, which was turned into a motion picture in 1949 by RKO General.

[2] Many of her books showcased life in the Appalachians ranging from West Virginia down to North Carolina in a style Kirkus Reviews called "very mountain-dewy" in 1969.

[4] Her writing did focus on contemporary themes reflected against this rural backdrop; her first novel Thursday April explored "the meaning of the World War to the mountain folk.

[6][7] West Virginia University awarded Hannum an honorary doctorate in 1968 for her writings on the Southern Highlands.

[12] Hannum was born in Condit, Ohio to James Ellsworth Pierson and Caroline Adelle Evans.