Beverly Cleary, the celebrated children’s author whose memories of her childhood in Oregon were shared with millions like Ramona and Beezus Quimby and Henry Huggins, has passed away. She was 104.
Cleary’s publisher HarperCollins announced on Friday that the author passed away Thursday in Northern California, where she had lived since the 1960s. No cause of death was stated.
Cleary, trained as a librarian, did not start writing books until she was in her early thirties, when she wrote “Henry Huggins,” published in 1950. Children around the world came to love the adventures of Huggins and neighbors Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, Beatrice ‘Beezus’ Quimby and her younger sister, Ramona. They live in a remote, healthy neighborhood on Klickitat Street – a real street in Portland, Oregon, the town where Cleary spent much of her childhood.
Among the “Henry” titles were “Henry and Ribsy,” “Henry and the Paper Route,” and “Henry and Beezus.”
Ramona, arguably her best-known character, made her debut in “Henry Huggins” with only a brief mention.
“All the kids turned out to be only kids, so I threw in a sister and she didn’t leave. She kept appearing in every book,” she said in a March 2016 telephone interview from her home in California.
Cleary was an only child herself and said the character was not a mirror.
“I was a good girl, not what I wanted to be,” she said. “At the age of Ramona, at the time, children were playing outside. We played hopscotch and skipping rope and I loved them and always had chafed knees.”
In all, there were eight books on Ramona between “Beezus and Ramona” in 1955 and “Ramona’s World” in 1999. Others were “Ramona the Pest” and “Ramona and Her Father.” In 1981 “Ramona and Her Mother” won the National Book Award.
Cleary didn’t write lately because she said she felt “it’s important for writers to know when to stop.”
“I even got rid of my typewriter. It was a fun one, but I hate typing. When I started writing I found myself thinking more about typing than what I was going to say, so I wrote it with the long hand, ”she said in March 2016.
Although she had put her pen away, Cleary re-released three of her most treasured books with three famous fans writing forewords to the new editions.
Actress Amy Poehler wrote the front part of “Ramona Quimby, Age 8;” author Kate DiCamillo wrote the opening for “The Mouse and the Motorcycle;” and author Judy Blume wrote the foreword to “Henry Huggins.”
Cleary, who described herself as “fuddy-duddy,” said there was a simple reason why she started writing children’s books.
“As a librarian, kids always asked for books about ‘kids like us.’ “Well, there were no books on such children. So when I sat down to write, I found myself writing about the kinds of kids I had grown up with,” Cleary said in a 1993 interview with the Associated Press.
Dear Mr. Henshaw, the moving story of a lonely boy who corresponds with a children’s author, won the 1984 John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American children’s literature. It “came about when two different boys from different parts of the country asked me to write a book about a boy whose parents were divorced,” she told National Public Radio as she approached her 90th birthday.
“Ramona and Her Father” in 1978 and “Ramona Quimby, Age 8” in 1982 were named Newbery Honor Books.
Cleary ventured into fantasy with “The Mouse and the Motorcycle” and its sequels “Runaway Ralph” and “Ralph S. Mouse.” “Socks”, about a cat’s struggle for acceptance when its owners have a baby, is told from the point of view of the pet itself.
She was declared a living legend by the Library of Congress in 2000. In 2003 she was selected as one of the winners of the National Medal of Arts and met President George W. Bush. She is praised in literary circles from far and wide.
Tim Sloan / AFP via Getty
She produced two volumes of autobiography for young readers, “A Girl from Yamhill,” about her childhood, and “My Own Two Feet,” which tells the story of her school and early adult years up to the time of her first book.
“I seem to have grown up with an unusual memory. People are amazed at the things I remember. I think it’s because I spent the first six years of my life living in isolation on a farm where I mostly observed,” said Cleary. .
Cleary was born in Beverly Bunn on April 12, 1916 in McMinnville, Oregon, and lived on a farm in Yamhill until her family moved to Portland when she was school. She was a slow reader, blamed for illness, and a narrow-minded first-class teacher who punished her by throwing a steel-tipped pointer across the back of her hands.
“I had chicken pox, smallpox, and tonsillitis in first grade and no one seemed to think this had anything to do with my reading difficulties,” Cleary told the AP. “I just got angry and rebellious.”
In sixth or seventh grade “I decided I was going to write children’s stories,” she said.
Cleary graduated from junior college in Ontario, California, and from the University of California at Berkeley, where she met her husband, Clarence. They were married in 1940; Clarence Cleary died in 2004. They were the parents of twins, a boy and a girl born in 1955 who inspired her book “Mitch and Amy”.
Cleary studied library science at the University of Washington and worked as a children’s librarian in Yakima, Washington, and post librarian at Oakland Army Hospital during World War II.
Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and inspired Japanese, Danish and Swedish television programs based on the Henry Huggins series. A 10-part PBS series, “Ramona”, starred Canadian actress Sarah Polley. The 2010 movie “Ramona and Beezus” featured actresses Joey King and Selena Gomez.
Cleary was once asked what her favorite character was.
“Does your mother have a favorite child?” she responded.