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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 27 december 2019
Elizabeth Spencer, 'Light In the Piazza' author, dies at 98

By HILLEL ITALIE was eased and haunted by
Associated Press the subservient presence of
NEW YORK (AP) — Elizabeth blacks, "an ugly system, of
Spencer, a grande dame course," Spencer wrote in
of Southern literature who her memoir.
bravely navigated be- "But in that childhood time
tween the Jim Crow past of enchantment and love,
and open-ended present it never seemed to me any-
in her novels and stories thing but part of the eter-
including the celebrated nal."
novella "Light In the Piazza," Carrollton labeled her
has died at 98. early, and unfavorably,
Spencer, who sometimes as "smart." Taunted by her
went by her married name classmates, "ostracized
Elizabeth Rusher, died Sun- and mocked at," she would
day night in Chapel Hill, sneak off to the woods to
North Carolina, according write, acts of defiance that
to playwright Craig Lucas, left her with "pangs of feel-
who adapted "Light In the ing 'different,' evasiveness
Piazza" for the stage. and secret anxieties."
Old enough to know ex- She was an undergradu-
slaves and Civil War veter- Author Elizabeth Spencer is pictured in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in front of a personal library in ate at Belhaven College
ans, Spencer chronicled 2005. (now Belhaven University)
her complicated affection Associated Press in Jackson, Mississippi, and
for her ties to tiny Carroll- received a master's in lit-
ton, Mississippi — her de- book form in 1960, it was an recently chosen to be- memoir "Landscapes of the erature from Vanderbilt
termination to honor them immediate critical favorite come part of the nonprofit Heart." Her many honors University in Nashville. Her
and to leave them behind. adapted into a 1962 movie Library of America collec- included the Rea Award first novel, "Fire In the Morn-
Like her predecessor and that starred Olivia De Havil- tion, which has published and PEN/Malamud prize ing," was published in 1948,
fellow Mississippian, William land and Yvette Mimieux editions by authors includ- for lifetime achievement in followed by "This Crooked
Faulkner, she was an au- and into a Broadway musi- ing William Faulkner and short fiction, five O'Henry Way" and "The Voice at the
thor praised by strangers cal that in 2006 won six To- Mark Twain. prizes for short stories and Back Door," the story of a
and shunned by acquain- nys. "I think her importance as membership in the Ameri- candidate for sheriff who
tances. "She's not only an inspiring an American writer is just can Academy of Arts and supports racial justice in a
"In a small town that's been person on the page, but being recognized, even Letters. small Mississippi communi-
there for ages, some peo- an amazing friend," said though she's been called Spencer was a final link to ty. "The Voice at the Back
ple look out and some look North Carolina-based nov- a master since the 1940s," the pre-World War II South Door" was recommended
in," she would write. "As for elist Allan Gurganus, whose Gurganus said in a phone and to an era when Welty by a Pulitzer committee for
myself, I mainly just looked friendship with Spencer be- interview. and other writers from that the 1957 fiction prize, but
around me." gan in 1972 when she wrote Admired by Eudora Welty region struggled for nation- rejected by the board. No
Her most famous work, to congratulate him on a and Alice Munro among al recognition. Born in 1921, fiction award was given
"Light In the Piazza," is the short story he published others, Spencer wrote the Spencer was descended that year.
story of a North Carolina early in his career. novels "The Snare" and from plantation owners and Meanwhile, after traveling
woman in Florence who He described her as some- "The Salt Line" and doz- grew up in a community in Europe and living in Ten-
watches and worries as her one who believed in ens of short stories, most where girls were chastised nessee and Oxford, Missis-
mentally impaired daugh- younger writers and en- recently for the 2014 col- for smoking, gossip was sippi, she returned to Car-
ter falls in love with an Ital- couraged them to achieve lection "Starting Over." She forbidden (but flourished rollton in 1956 and found
ian. First published in The their promise. He noted also completed a play, anyway) and matrons lived that no one was interested
New Yorker and released in that some of her work was "For Lease or Sale," and the in columned mansions. Life in her books. q

Dancer born with one hand makes Radio City Rockettes history

Associated Press brachydactyly, a rare con- in the show might not no-
NEW YORK (AP) — A danc- genital condition. tice her missing hand, even
er born with one hand is The Pace University gradu- where there are minor
the first person with a visible ate from Portland, Oregon, modifications to the act to
disability ever hired by New was hired by the Rockettes accommodate her. In one
York's famed Radio City after her fourth audition. number where the Rock-
Rockettes. She said she has been "mes- ettes ring a bell in each
"I don't want to be known merized" by the troupe, hand, she rings just one.
as the dancer who has one which dates to 1925, ever Rockettes creative director
hand, and not because since first seeing them on Karen Keeler called Mesh-
that's a bad thing," Sydney TV in the Macy's Thanksgiv- er "an incredibly versatile
Mesher, who joined the ing Day Parade. dancer with a strong work
Rockettes this season, told Mesher said she started ethic." Keeler said Mesher
Newsday. "But because dancing as a child and at- "is smart and determined,
I've worked very hard to be tended a performing arts with an eye for detail." In this Oct. 22, 2019 photo, Rockette Sydney Mesher center right,
where I am." high school. In the Radio The annual Radio City takes part in a rehearsal at the Rockette's rehearsal space in
Mesher, 22, is missing a City Christmas Spectacu- Christmas Spectacular runs New York.
left hand because of sym- lar, audiences caught up through Jan. 5.q Associated Press