Evelyn Birkby celebrated her 100th birthday earlier this year. (Photo provided to the Register) |
Her writing career began in 1949 after her husband Robert saw an ad in the Shenandoah Evening Sentinel (now the Shenandoah Sentinel) seeking a farmer's wife to write a homemaker's column. She never missed a week after that, though sometimes Bob ghost-wrote a column if she was unavailable.
"Evelyn’s columns were printed efforts to be a good neighbor. She spoke about her family, her community and stirred in wit and wisdom," Finney writes. And though her columns were mostly lighthearted, "she wrote about serious topics, too. She wrote about losing her daughter, Dulcie Jean, to a sudden illness when she was 5. She wrote about losing her sight in old age. She wrote about falling in love with her husband and his love letters, though she would never be so bold as to publish the actual text."
Shenandoah, Iowa (Wikipedia map) |
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