Kids' writer Patricia Scarry?
Lenona321
died in New York in 1995. Trouble is, that search didn't work when I included
her birth year - 1924 - and last I heard, she was living in Switzerland. I
can't find anything else that would imply she's no longer with us. Maybe the
real question is, how do I find that particular obituary, since one link I
found for NY obituaries didn't find anyone by that name?
And yes, she is also the widow of Richard Scarry, who died in 1994.
Lenona.
(1986) Patricia Scarry's Little Willy and Spike: The adventures of a rabbit and
his porcupine friend New York and Racine, Wis.: Golden Book.
(1980) Patsy Scarry's Big bedtime storybook New York: Random House.
(1973) More about Waggy New York: McGraw-Hill.
(1971) Little Richard and Prickles New York: American Heritage Press.
(1971) Waggy and his friends New York: American Heritage Press.
(1970) The sweet smell of Christmas New York: Golden Press.
(1970) Little Richard New York: American Heritage Press.
(1969) The golden story book of River Bend New York: Golden Press.
(1969) The Jeremy Mouse book: Stories New York: American Heritage Press.
(1958) My baby sister New York: Golden Press.
(I VERY much doubt the Little Richard books have anything to do with HIM!)
Hyfler/Rosner
"Lenona321" <leno...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040908143134...@mb-m02.aol.com...
>I searched in the Social Security Death Index and it said
>someone with her name
> died in New York in 1995. Trouble is, that search didn't
> work when I included
> her birth year - 1924 - and last I heard, she was living
> in Switzerland. I
> can't find anything else that would imply she's no longer
> with us. Maybe the
> real question is, how do I find that particular obituary,
> since one link I
> found for NY obituaries didn't find anyone by that name?
>
> And yes, she is also the widow of Richard Scarry, who died
> in 1994.
>
Still searching. Enjoy this while I'm still looking. Found
it in a Times (London) obituary for Richard Scarry.
Mr Scarry's widow Patricia said yesterday: ''He considered
himself an educator more than anything. He thought any child
could learn to read and absorb other things if they were
having fun.'' She met her husband at a party in 1947 and
married him two weeks later after receiving a proposal in
the form of a telegram that read simply: ''Must move grand
piano. Heavy. Come immediately.''
''He was a very funny man ... wherever he was you could hear
his laugh,'' she said.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Lenona321" wrote:
>I searched in the Social Security Death Index and it said
>someone with her name
> died in New York in 1995. Trouble is, that search didn't
> work when I included
> her birth year - 1924 - and last I heard, she was living
> in Switzerland. I
> can't find anything else that would imply she's no longer
> with us. Maybe the
> real question is, how do I find that particular obituary,
> since one link I
> found for NY obituaries didn't find anyone by that name?
This article is from the Dallas Morning News, December 23,
1998. It's about Scarry's son who has taken over the family
business. I've removed the relevant information from the
article, but I leave the whole thing intact if you want to
contact any of the players for better details. There is no
NY Times obit for her, paid or otherwise.
"...And real-life Gstaad is where Huck Scarry not only gets
his inspiration for the Christmas video, CD-ROM and book,
but also where he reconnects with his memories, both of his
father and his mother, children's book author Patricia
Scarry, who has also passed away...."
Richard Scarry's son and successor keeps memories of his
father fresh with holiday works
Huck Scarry misses his father, Richard Scarry, all the
time - but especially at Christmas.
So, as a special tribute to the celebrated author of the
Busytown books - 100 million copies of 300 books and still
counting - the son, who has been carrying on his father's
work since Richard Scarry's death four years ago, has just
turned out two new Christmas titles - a video and CD-ROM -
and is planning a book.
The video, Richard Scarry's The Best Christmas Surprise
Ever, tells three stories, including one about how Hilda
Hippo saves Christmas by helping Santa when his sleigh
crashes on a roof. The CD-ROM, Richard Scarry's The Best
Christmas Ever, gives children the opportunity to help
Huckle and Lowly cut down and decorate a tree for Busytown,
as well as design and print out Christmas cards and
ornaments.
And then there's the new book in the works, The Night Before
the Night Before Christmas, scheduled for a later holiday
season release, in which Mr. Frumble saves the day.
If you detect a common theme, that's probably no accident.
After all, these titles - all done with his father's
characters and whimsical sense of humor - seem to be Mr.
Scarry's way of "saving" Christmas for himself and his
family by keeping his father's spirit in the holiday.
"My father adored Christmas; he was the biggest child at
Christmastime," says Mr. Scarry on the phone from his home
in Vienna, Austria. "He loved going and getting the tree,
and he loved decorating it. He had to get the biggest and
fattest, so there was no room to move around the living
room. He would open presents like a little boy, tearing
paper in every direction."
Mr. Scarry, 45, and a father of four, had his own respected
career as an illustrator and a painter before taking on the
job of carrying on his father's daunting legacy. His given
name is Richard Scarry Jr. - so continuing to attribute the
new Busytown efforts to Richard Scarry is still accurate.
His father gave him his nickname when he was a toddler,
saying, "He's a real Huckleberry Finn." The "Huck" stuck,
and he continues to use that name when doing his own books
and exhibitions.
"I started helping my father with his work when he started
losing his eyesight," he says. "The publishers liked it, and
when my father died, I thought it was sad for his work to
come to a halt. And I saw no reason for that. He had created
this very funny world, so instead of creating my own
characters, it seemed easiest and best to use the ones where
he left off."
One of his first major efforts on his father's behalf was
The Busy World of Richard Scarry television series, which he
helped develop with CINAR Films Inc. The show, which began
airing in 1994, the year his father died, has won a 1995
Prix Bemeaux for best animation series by the Academy of
Canadian Cinema and Television and a 1997 Parents' Choice
Silver Honor.
It airs daily on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr., on Showtime in the
United States on the Family Channel in Canada and in 100
countries worldwide.
Ironically, the television series, while inspired by his
father's books, may have been something that could only have
been done by the son. Richard Scarry, who did everything for
his books from writing to illustrating to layout, was
uncomfortable with collaboration.
Part of the difference, Huck Scarry says, is that while his
father considered his characters his "offspring," he
describes himself as their "guardian."
"It would have been difficult for him to work on the
animation series or the CD-ROMs working with other people's
ideas. I loved it; I had a great time. My father loved
people, but my temperament makes it perhaps easier for me to
work with other people."
And then Huck Scarry acknowledges the prickly part of his
father's nature. "He had a very, very powerful self-centered
personality which was sometimes difficult for other people."
But it evidently didn't bother his father's publisher after
he got a glimpse of what would become Richard Scarry's first
Busytown book, Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever, with
1,400 objects on its drawing-jammed pages, in 1963.
"When his publisher saw the book, he said very ad lib that
this is just the best word book ever. And that's why they
decided to call it that, because that's simply what it was."
His father loved the title because, he says, "It's very
catching, and it suited him because he was very much an
egotist and bigger than life. He was really convinced that
what he did was the very best around."
And yet if Richard Scarry believed that what he did was the
best, that confidence may have been what he needed to
succeed in the face of discouragement. Like his fellow book
titans of this century, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and
Maurice Sendak, Richard Scarry's work was at first disdained
by major book sellers and critics. It was the public that
made him a success by snapping up his books in supermarkets
in the 1970s.
Now Mr. Scarry's books have a place of honor in all major
stores. That's what happens when you're responsible for
eight of the top 50 best-selling hardcover children's books
of all time.
Second generation
Huck Scarry and his children, Fiona, 19, and Olympia, 15,
from his first marriage and Katja, 2, and Julian, 3 months,
from his present one, have all grown up with Richard
Scarry's characters. The books, naturally, are all over the
house. And while everyone loves Lowly Worm and Bananas
Gorilla, his children have a special affection for Huckle
because they know that's their dad.
Actually, one of the aspects of his father's work that Huck
Scarry has particularly enjoyed is watching the characters
evolve over the years. He remembers how his namesake,
Huckle, started out as a small bear in a storybook
dictionary. He followed Lowly Worm's genesis from an unnamed
worm to his present incarnation.
"My father had this interest in worms and gradually
developed his character as everything that is positive and
bright and cheery. He can solve all problems and works a
little bit as Huckle's older brother."
Another plus now that he has taken over: "He's pretty easy
to draw."
In plunging into new Busytown projects, Huck Scarry says, he
strives to keep his father's characters alive not through
imitation as much as by trying to care for them as his
father did.
"My father loved the work that he did. He was very childlike
and remained that way his entire life. He did the books for
himself, he put the things in that he wanted to see. He had
a tremendous talent for digesting information and making it
easy for young people to understand.
"He's very much present in my life always. We were very
close and shared many experiences together. I think I have a
pretty good idea of the things he liked and did. I don't try
to think of how he would tackle a situation. It comes pretty
naturally."
Common threads
One area where father and son have been in perfect agreement
is the importance of manners.
"There's nothing more sweet than having a child say "please'
and "thank you.' That's something I feel very strongly
about."
That politeness stands out in the CD-ROMs, both The Best
Christmas Ever and another new one for the non-Christmas
crowd, Richard Scarry's Best Activity Center Ever.
An area both father and son have struggled with is the male
and female roles. Huck Scarry now continues with a solution
his father introduced for those who complain about Mother
Cat being in the kitchen while Father Cat is at work. "We
put a lot of ribbons on the backs of the heads of plumbers
and electricians."
Part of Richard Scarry's international appeal comes from his
idea - unique at the time - of fashioning a world of animals
in human clothing. It was a subconscious idea, Huck Scarry
says, that came strictly from the imagination.
"There's no foreignness to the look of any of these animals.
They're all immediately accessible and all lovable to
children around the world. It's rather crazy and rather
nice."
That universality made the characters especially appealing
to Viacom Consumer Products, the licensing division for
Paramount Pictures, which obtained the rights to Mr.
Scarry's works in 1990. Toys, plush and otherwise, and Happy
Meal prizes soon followed.
But most of his other ideas came from life.
The fictional Busytown looks very much like Gstaad,
Switzerland, where the American-born family moved in 1968
and where Huck Scarry still takes his family to spend
Christmas every year in his parents' old home.
"It reminds me of Busytown, with the cows and tractors with
hay going down the streets. But my father was also a very
funny man, sensitive to anything comic or amusing around
him. I recall once there was a truck that went by that was a
little too tall for the street and tore down the telephone
wires. That made it into a book."
And real-life Gstaad is where Huck Scarry not only gets his
inspiration for the Christmas video, CD-ROM and book, but
also where he reconnects with his memories, both of his
father and his mother, children's book author Patricia
Scarry, who has also passed away.
"It's always a lovely occasion for all of us to go up to my
parents' house in the mountains. It's a picture--book
atmosphere with the snow, the fireplace and the Christmas
tree," he says.
"My father always got the biggest and the fattest tree, and
I try to do the best I can."
And with Huck Scarry's help, Hilda, Huckle and Lowly are
doing the best they can, too.
Nancy Churnin is a Dallas-area free-lance writer.