Mildred Benson

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Birth: Jul. 10, 1905 Ladora Iowa County Iowa, USA

Death: May 28, 2002 Toledo Lucas County Ohio, USA

Author. She is most commonly known as 'Carolyn Keene', author of 23 of the first 30 "Nancy Drew Mystery Stories". She also used other pen names such as, 'Dorothy West', 'Frances Judd' and 'Helen Louise Thorndyke'. Not just a writer of "Nancy Drew" stories, she also wrote over 130 childrens books and a monthly column for the Toledo "Blade", which was maintained until her death, and many short stories. She began writing in Ladora, Iowa, and was born to Lillian and Dr. J.L. Augustine. A highly honored woman, she won a silver badge for her story, "The Courtesy", which was printed in the children's magazine, "St. Nicholas". Another high honor was to be the first woman (not to mention student) to graduate from the University of Iowa with a Masters in Journalism in 1927 and also at the State University of Iowa. She was only paid $125 per book and did not collect any royalties from book sales and movies. The day after she was diagnosed with lung cancer in June 1997, she was back at her desk working on her next column. She became ill at work while working on her column about daily life and other folks for The Blade newspaper. She was then taken to the Toledo Hospital where she passed away. (bio by: j fisher)

Burial: Toledo Memorial Park Sylvania Lucas County Ohio, USA GPS (lat/lon): 41.72065, -83.69796

Maintained by: Find A Grave Originally Created by: Ms. Mandy Record added: May 29, 2002 Find A Grave Memorial# 6456163

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