Donnell Rubay, a Benicia author, historian, educator and one-time mayoral candidate, died Thursday night. “Benicia has lost a fabulous historian,” fellow Benicia writer Kathryn Reiss said. “Her meticulously researched biographies and historical fiction for children and young adults entertained and educated a generation of readers. A light has gone out in Benicia.” A resident […]
Photo: Here’s to you, Elsie Robinson
The A Cappella Handyman: New Black Fedora
New Black Fedora I went online ’cause I couldn’t find a New Black Fedora at my local hardware store. With a feather in its side, I felt new pride, and headed for the Dress Rehearsal. I read my lines, did real fine, never took off my hat, come Column Time it seems just fine, to […]
Donnell Rubay: Listen, World! Elsie Speaks
Twenty million daily readers. Two thousand fan letters a day. Four full-time personal secretaries. A real-life Brenda Starr-type reporter, but also a beloved advice columnist before Ann Landers and Dear Abby—meet former Benician and nationally-known syndicated Hearst columnist, Elsie Robinson. A sample of her work: “Stop a minute, World. “Every day they come in, those […]
Listen, Benicia: Famed syndicated columnist and city native Elsie Robinson will be focus of Capitol event
While Benicia today is well-known as an artist’s community, it has also been home to several famous writers. It was where Jack London famously resided for a period and where Stephen Vincent Benet spent his youth. Benicia was also the birthplace of a 20th century syndicated columnist named Elsinore Justinia Robinson— better known to the […]
The A Cappella Handyman: To Write
To Write To write is to grasp at the greatest of fantasies and to hold them firmly in the hand. To dream the greatest of dreams and to capture them in words. To seize upon the most illusive of thoughts, to harness them for a moment, and then in time, let them too run free. […]
ArchiTalk: Elsie Robinson’s Benicia (Redux)
Daily life of 1890s Benicia comes to life in hard-to-find memoir In 1883 a girl was born in Benicia, grew up there and came to make sense of the world from what she saw. At age 19, she moved to Vermont to marry into a family of strict puritans and years later returned to the […]