"....and God bless Shirley Lueth"

A fellow writer passed away this week and she will be missed.  Her name was Shirley Lueth.

For those of you who live outside Nebraska, Shirley Lueth may not be a recognizable name, although she originally hailed from Illinois and spent a good deal of time travelling and speaking.  

Here in the Cornhusker State, Shirley was well known and much admired by many for the past 40 years.  She wrote several books, two ("I Didn't Plan To Be A Witch" and "Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble") of which were published by the notable Avon Publishing, as well as articles that appeared in many national magazines.  

Her humor column, "Prayer and Peanut Butter" (a title that has since been lifted and modified by other, lesser writers) appeared originally in the Aurora (Nebraska) Register, then was picked up by the Grand Island Independent, the central Nebraska newspaper that published my column for ten years.  Shirley's and my essays were the only locally written humor columns featured in the Independent.  Shirley's column was eventually syndicated; mine was not.  Shirley eventually retired; I was shown the door (another story for another time).

But it did me proud over the years to serve as co-humorist with Shirley in the Lifestyle section of the newspaper.  Her charming, folksy wit fertilized the every day trappings of a small town housewife and mother and a bumper crop of laugh out loud humor was harvested regularly.


Shirley and I met at a writers' group meeting.  She had been asked to speak, so I made it a point to attend, thinking I could introduce myself to this veteran humorist, beg a couple of minutes of her time and perhaps pick up a couple of writing tips from her. 


Imagine my surprise when she approached me and said, "I was hoping you'd be here so I could finally meet you."  We hit it off wonderfully and chatted at length.  

She did give me one memorable piece of advice: "Don't do anything for free."  This was not borne out of any sense of greed or contempt, but rather it was Shirley's way of telling me to respect myself as a writer and a speaker and to beware of those who take advantage and don't recognize a writer's worth.  They are the greedy ones.


This was an extraordinarily down to earth woman who lived a simple Christian life in a quiet rural community and she mined her everyday experiences, panning for humor gold. She always hit the mother lode.

I hit a bonanza of sorts that night I met Shirley Lueth.  I discovered what real humorists are made of:  life itself.