Goodbye Clifford

Tonight on the news I heard that Norman Bridwell, the author of the “Clifford the Red Dog” books, had passed away Friday at the age of 86.  It immediately brought back memories of my Library career, and of my Children’s Librarian “Miss Ann”, who passed away at the young age of 57 just nine years ago, on December 11, 2005.  I wrote about Miss Ann and about the Library System I was the Director of previously, and you can read that account here.

The picture above is the outside of the recently remodeled White Hall Library back in 2006.  When originally built back in the ‘80s, it was a library and also garaged the bookmobile.  We built two more Libraries while I was there, and no longer needed the bookmobile.  So we gutted this library and ended up with a remodeled Library with nearly twice as much usable space for patrons than we previously had.  

  

   

The top two pictures are of the adult area, and the bottom two are from the children’s area.  Due to the influence of “Miss Ann”, I tried to be sure the kids areas were always colorful and fun looking.  “Children are our future,” she would say.

Miss Ann died in December, 2005.  The White Hall Library re-opened in May, 2006.  But Miss Ann was there……

…..during the spring/summer of 2005, not knowing if she would still be around or not when the White Hall Library remodel took place, she had a book salesman get this “Very Large” Clifford the Red Dog as her “gift” to the White Hall Library.   You don’t know how many little boys and girls I saw give Clifford the biggest hug over the years….hugs which use to be reserved for Miss Ann when children their age came to hear her tell one of her stories.   Good bye Clifford creator … give Miss Ann a big hug from Dave.