DUFF, Margaret K(app) 1916-2003

(Maggie Duff)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 4, 1916, in Walton, IN; died April 25, 2003, in Taos, NM. Librarian, artist, and author. Duff was a respected children's book author who once served on the prestigious Caldecott Award Committee. Originally trained as a violinist, she studied at the Jordan Conservatory of Music before attending Butler University, where she earned a B.A. in English literature in 1937. After marrying an orchestra timpanist and raising a family, she went back to school and earned a master's degree in library science from Case Western Reserve University in 1966. She then embarked on a career as a children's librarian in Cleveland from 1966 to 1980. Here she developed skills in puppetry and storytelling (she won an award for puppet performance from the Cleveland Orchestra Key Concerts in 1979), and she began writing. The four children's books she published, all under the name Maggie Duff, include Jonny and His Drum (1972), Rum Pum Pum (1978), The Princess and the Pumpkin (1980), and Dancing Turtle (1981). Along with her musical, puppetry, and writing talents, Duff was also an artist who painted and created sculptures; she participated in juried shows in Ohio, Indiana, Washington, D.C., and Arizona.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Holtze, Sally Holmes, Sixth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators, H. W. Wilson (New York, NY), 1989.

PERIODICALS

Plain Dealer, May 3, 2003, p. B7.