Octogenarian and Nonagenarian Writers
I have great admiration for writers who continue their craft into their eighties and nineties. Writing is something that fits quite well into a senior lifestyle.
We may have to give up playing football or baking rich desserts or other hobbies we had when younger. Arthritis and high cholesterol starts to cut into some of our fun. Writing remains. Some seniors don't discover the pleasures of writing until their other activities become restricted.
Here I want to celebrate writers who put pen to paper or fingers to a keyboard to record the essays, poems, and even books during their eighties and nineties.
Granny's World
a blog by Nancy J. Kopp of Manhattan, Kansas
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byVintage Writers on the Our Echo Website
Our Echo specializes in family memory writing, but attracts a variety of writing from essays to poetry to fiction and family history. Check out the writing by these octogenarians and nonagenarians.
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- Wanda Molsberry Bates (born in 1915)
- Read her essays like "At 94" and "School Days - Memories."
- Kathe M. Campbell
- Read her accounts of ranch life and overcoming hardships. She has memory pieces like "Blooming Where We're Planted."
- Gail Lee Martin (born in 1924)
- Gail writes about growing up on the Kansas prairies. Her writing list on Our Echo also includes poems.
- John William Daniel
- At 92, John William Daniel writes about his early experiences in South Texas near the Mexican border.
- Nancy J. Kopp
- Read her heart-warming stories and musings. She has had nine articles included in the Chicken Soup series of books.
- Winifred Beatrice Peterson (born in 1914)
- This 95 year old writer tells about her childhood in "Just a Country Girl" and later life in "The Farmwife Flunky."
- Tom Foley of Maine (age 82)
- Besides writing, Tom also does watercolor painting and woodcarving.
- How to Write Family Memories for Our Echo
- We all have special memories of our families and of earlier times in our lives. To save these for ourselves and our families, there's a site called Our Echo. It's free to register and then you can store written accounts of special times in your life.
Writing in the Senior Years
Emilie Betts - Personal Legacy
Books Written By Octogenarians
Available from Amazon
Shadows in My House of Sunshine
Amazon Price: (as of 02/09/2010) 
Addie of the Flint Hills: A Prairie Child During the Depression (1915-1935)
Amazon Price: $25.00 (as of 02/09/2010)
Gail Martin's Book Published at Age 85
Read More About My Flint Hills Childhood
and about the Author, Gail Lee Martin
The memories include her father's work in the oil field, trips to town in the family's Model A, raising her pet badger, fishing on the Cottonwood River, and wearing dresses made from feed sack material.
The book also explores her family's role in early Kansas history with details of covered wagons, homesteading, the Civil War and fledgling industries. These range from Tyro to Teterville to Eureka.
- Gail Martin's Website
- Read an excerpt from her book, find out what her next book is about and see photos of the author.
Gail Lee Martin's Tips for Writing Family Memories
- How to Trigger Memories to Use in Writing
- A sheet of blank paper intimidates many people. They'd like to write about memories of their childhood and of special times in their life, but getting started is hard. Here are triggers to start you writing.
- How to Write Memories More Vividly
- Writing family memories saves them for your children and grandchildren to enjoy. Each person's memories remain unique and there's no single correct way to write them. Here are tips for enhancing your memory writing.
- How to Write Family Memories about a Home
- Sometimes it's hard to dredge up early memories without something to trigger them. Don't let the early days slip away. Write the memories down to share with your children and grandchildren. Here's how to use your memories of a former home to bring the memories back.
- How to Trigger October Memories for Writing
- This is one article in a series (covering January to December).
Writing family memories becomes more important over the years. Memories start to fade and the chance to save them grows slimmer. Here are memory reminders for the month of October. Use them to start writing down memories for your children and grandchildren to treasure. - How to Write Memories of a Child's Birth Year
- It's important to write down memories from the year of your child's birth. This can be a birthday surprise for them and a gift they will cherish from Mom or Dad.
Here's what to include in writing about their birth year.
Writer - The Journies of an Explorer by suburbanscenes
Make your own stationery on zazzle.com - How to Create a Writing Room
- When you write, you need a place for your computer, your research materials and lots of files. Here are ways to get the space needed for productive writing.
Choose a Mug, Fix a Cup of Tea and Settle in to Read
(products from Zazzle by Virginia Allain)
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Underwood Typewriter
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- LindaJM LindaJM Jan 28, 2010 @ 9:22 pm
- Thanks for this wonderful inspiration from a 57-yr-old waiting-to-be-published author. 5* and blessed.
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- Joan4 Joan4 Jan 24, 2010 @ 11:22 am
- Wonderful! It is vitally important that we add our stories, talents and memories to the history of our world as we saw it!
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- OhMe OhMe Jan 19, 2010 @ 7:23 am
- This is great. I am definitely lensrolling and featuring this lens on the third in my Pendleton Memories Series about Nell Seawright Reeves who is 95 yrs old and still writing beautifully. I think I have a little Angel Dust left over so will sprinkle some here, too.
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- HSSchulte HSSchulte Jan 10, 2010 @ 4:21 pm
- I just adore this lens. We can learn so much from them. Thank you.
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- Nancy Kopp Nancy Kopp Nov 20, 2009 @ 4:31 pm
- A great website, Virginia. There is so much of interest here and nicely done.
A Worthy Cause
First Book provides new books to children in need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy—access to books. Since 1992, First Book has distributed over 60 million free and low-cost books in thousands of communities.
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