Palmerstown - Small southern town on the rural drama PALMERSTOWN, U.S.A./CBS/1980-81. Set in the years of the Depression, Palmerstown was the home of Luther Freeman (Bill Duke), the town's blacksmith (a black man); and his wife, Bessie (Jonelle Allen); his young son, Booker T. (Jermain Hodge Johnson); and older daughter Diana (Star-Shemah Bobatoon). The town was the setting of Booker T's friendship with his white friend, David Hall (Brian Godfrey Wilson), the son of the town's local grocer. Palmerstown (inspired by Alex Haley's hometown of Henning, Tennessee) derived its name from Alex Haley's middle name of Palmer.