Walter Benjamin Hare

Wrote over 200 plays, mostly in his spare time while still working as a meteorologist.

His most successful play, "Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick" (1919), sold over 1,000,000 copies and was produced over 28,000 times, mainly by amateur theaters.

While his plays were popular with amateur theaters around the country, none were ever produced on Broadway.

Explaining why he wrote under three names, Hare said; "I use the pen name Lt. Beal Carmack for the plays that I'm ashamed of, the name Mary Modena Burns for the religious plays, and the other stuff I wrote under my own name." "Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick" was written under the name Lt. Beal Carmack.

After graduating from Emory College in Atlanta, Georgia, Hare briefly tried his hand at acting before joining the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1905. He retired in Phoenix, Arizona after 33 years service as a government meteorologist.

Passed away in St Louis while traveling home after attending his 1905 class reunion at Emory College.