Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is perhaps underappreciated outside Florida for her literary legacy and also not sufficiently understood even in the Sunshine State. Who was she, really? It’s a question author Ann McCutchan answers brilliantly in her new biography of Rawlings.
Olga Mitchell, known for her passion in exploring family history and its relationship to Eatonville, passed away last month at 95. Eatonville is perhaps the most storied historic community in Central Florida because of its most famous daughter, Zora Neale Hurston. Eatonville’s eldest elder, Ella Augusta Johnson Dinkins, died at 102 on Nov. 29. Dinkins had not only known Hurston but had helped initiate the annual festival founded in Hurston’s name in 1990. The passing of these elders brings reminders of how important they, and others like them, have been in preserving our history.