Here is the news release about Susan's latest book. She is not only living in the southern part of our state, not too far from the Ozarks, but she has published a biography of an amazing woman of the Missouri Ozarks. As a person who has enjoyed the area since childhood, I am excited to learn about this woman, her story so beautifully told by our own Susan. I'm taking my copy next time I expect to see Susan so she can autograph it for me! Thank you Susan for being one of our KHS65 STARS, making us look so good for so long. Such a group we are!! Happy New Year to everyone, we all need a GREAT new year, with the rest of the world too~
An Independent Woman,
Changing Times, And A Bully Pulpit:
NEWSPAPERWOMAN
OF THE OZARKS Traces the life of an Ozarks Icon
Before
the word Ozarks was synonymous with the idea of goofy hillbillies,
fast boats, and family vacations, it was a place where real people
lived their lives day-to-day and learned about the world from their
local newspapers.
Lucile
Morris Upton was one of the people who made reading newspapers
worthwhile, and she is the subject of a new biography published by
the University of Arkansas Press this year: Newspaperwoman
of the Ozarks: the Live & Times of Lucile Morris Upton,
by Susan Croce Kelly.
One
hundred years ago (1923), when Upton traded her teaching job for a
reporter’s notebook, she had no idea that during her career, she
would rub shoulders
with presidents, fly with aviation pioneer Wiley Post, cover the
worst single killing of US police officers in the twentieth century,
write an acclaimed book on the vigilante group known as the Bald
Knobbers, and chart the growth of tourism in the Ozarks.
Between
and during all that, however, she may have been best known as half of
the Lucile Morris Upton-Betty Love reporter-photographer duo sent by
the Springfield News
& Leader to
cover everything from murders and bank robberies to centennial
celebrations and Ozarks folkways, often making the news as much as
reporting on it.
After
her retirement, she put
her experience to good use as a member of the Springfield City
Council, played a large
part in seeing that Wilson’s Creek became a National Civil War
Battlefield and the Nathan Boone Home in Ash Grove was made a State
Historic Site.
Told
largely through Upton’s own words, this insightful biography
captures the excitement of being on the front lines of newsgathering
in the days when the whole world depended on newspapers to find out
what was happening.
Ozarks
folksinger, writer, and raconteur Marideth Sisco says of the book,
“To call this work a significant contribution to the history of the
Ozarks is an understatement. Author Susan Croce Kelly grasps the
importance of Lucile Morris Upton in the development of the Ozarks,
charting the events of Upton’s life with an understanding of the
characters involved in their historical context. This is an important
and enjoyable read.”
Kelly,
a former reporter at Upton’s own Springfield
News-Leader and the
St. Louis
Globe-Democrat, is
the author of two award-winning books on the history of old US
66: Route
66: The Highway and Its People (University
of Oklahoma Press), and Father
of Route 66, the Story of Cy Avery. She
is also managing editor of OzarksWatch Magazine
for Missouri State
University’s Ozarks Studies Institute.
The
book is available in local book stores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon,
and through the University of Arkansas Press distribution center
(1-800-621-2736).
To
talk with the author, arrange book signings, or set up speaking
engagements, contact Susan Croce Kelly at susancrocekelly@gmail.com,
573-569-1585