HALL, Margaret Smith 1945-
(Maggi Smith Hall)

PERSONAL: Born January 14, 1945, in Jacksonville, FL; daughter of Clayton (a supermarket manager) and Peggy (a homemaker; maiden name, Lehman) Smith; married Ronald L. Hall (a professor of philosophy), August 20, 1965; children: Amy Elizabeth Hall Dendinger, Erin Latimer Hall Holder. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Stetson University, B.A., 1967; Francis Marion University, M.Ed. (summa cum laude), 1975. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Christian. Hobbies and other interests: Restoring historic properties, environmental causes, gardening, reading, nurturing animals.

ADDRESSES: Home—717 North Amelia Ave., De-Land, FL 32724, Offıce—West Volusia Properties, 441 South Woodland Blvd., DeLand, FL 32720; fax: 386-738-3659. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Elementary schoolteacher in Durham, NC, 1968-73, and Florence, SC, 1973-80; learning disabilities clinician for public schools in Marion, SC, 1980-84; South Carolina Arts Commission, Columbia, SC, director of Rural Arts Program for Marion County, 1983-86; learning disabilities clinician for public schools in Mullins, SC, 1986-92; freelance writer in St. Augustine, FL, 1995-98; Island Cottages, Inc., St. Augustine, FL, owner and manager of rental units, 1998-99; freelance writer in DeLand, FL, 1999-2000; West Volusia Properties, Inc., DeLand, FL, owner and broker, 2001—. Marion County Museum, founder and director, 1980-86; member of DeLand Museum of Art, Athens Theater, Sands Theater, African-American Museum of Arts, and Ponce De Leon Inlet Lighthouse. Wildlife Action, Inc., national senior vice president for the environment, 1984-95, executive secretary and assistant administrator, 1985-95, summer day-camp director, 1988-94, founder and director of Fork Retch Environmental Education Center, 1991-95; T.R.E.E.S., president, 1996-98; member of West Volusia Animal Shelter, Journey's End Animal Shelter, Friends of Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, Florida Wildlife Federation, and World Wildlife Fund. City of St. Augustine, member of Municipal Code Enforcement Board, 1997-99, member of St. Johns County Tree Ordinance Committee, 1999; City of DeLand, member of City Code Enforcement Board, 2001—; Florida Humanities Council, member. New World Realty, realtor, 1998-99. Learning disabilities clinician and teacher of environmental education classes at public schools in Mullins, 1994-95. Appeared in the documentary television specials Conserving America: The Rivers, broadcast by WQED-Television, Pittsburgh, PA, 1988, and When a Tree Falls, 1990.

MEMBER: National League of American Pen Women, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society, Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, National Parks and Conservation Association, Nature Conservancy, National Trust for Historic Preservation, St. Augustine Historical Society, St. Johns County Audubon Society (member of board of trustees, 1999), West Volusia Historical Society, West Volusia Audubon Society, Friends of West Volusia Library, Friends of the St. Johns County Library.

AWARDS, HONORS: Award from South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1983, for restoring Marion County Museum; Trailblazer Award, Wildlife Action, 1988; Richard Watkins Conservation Award, Florence chapter, Sierra Club, 1991; Woodmen of the World Environmental award, 1991; Conservation Citizenship Award, Chevron Corp., 1993; Environmental Woman of Action Award, Wilderness Society, 1994; Southern Living Award, 1995; Education Conservationist Award, South Carolina Wildlife Federation, 1995.

WRITINGS:

UNDER NAME MAGGI SMITH HALL

Flavors of St. Augustine: An Historic Cookbook, Tailored Tours (Buena Vista, FL), 1999.

Images of America: St. Augustine, Florida, Arcadia Press (Charleston, SC), 2002.

Author of shorter works, including "A Driving Tour of Historic Marion County, South Carolina," Marion County Museum (Marion, SC), 1983; "Cooking through the Ages in Marion County," Marion County Museum (Marion, SC), 1983; "Cooking Wild, Edition I," Wildlife Action (Mullins, SC), 1988; "Cooking Wild, Edition II," Wildlife Action (Mullins, SC), 1996. Author of curriculum materials. Author of "Our Heritage," a monthly column in Chronicle (St. Augustine, FL), 1999. Contributor to periodicals, including Sandlapper: Magazine of South Carolina and Florida Living. Author and editor of Wildlife Pride, 1985-95; newsletter editor.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Images of America: DeLand, Florida and Stetson University, both for Arcadia Press (Charleston, SC); Affırmed: Teachers As Citizens.

SIDELIGHTS: Margaret Smith Hall told CA: "My writing began in the form of letters to family and friends, words painstakingly written in longhand, way before the quick impersonal word processor was invented. My message to the recipients traveled in a forty-five-degree angle from my head through my heart and out my fingertips. And when the mail arrived for the intended party and those insignificant words were read, the reader would comment, 'You should think about writing.'

"So one day I did, not for profit but as a volunteer for a regional environmental organization. I was the writer and editor of its twelve-page publication for ten years. This was an appropriate first start for a novice writer (which I still am), for the environmental movement consumes me with a passion that began in childhood and will follow me to my grave.

"After a rather bizarre and frightening experience while teaching in South Carolina, many suggested, 'Maggi, you should write your story.' I did, again and again and again. After over 200 rejections by agents and publishers, I continue to hope and I continue to rewrite that story—Affırmed: Teachers As Citizens. It is a story of intrigue in a small southern town, of the denial of first-amendment rights, and the fury from a public school superintendent because one of his teachers (me) dared to question how he was spending public funds. Three years of anguish and banishment from my school and three lawsuits later, I was reinstated. My case was one of the most important first-amendment cases to be decided in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. And one day I promise that story will be heard.

"Taking a break from the sadness of writing that story and the continued rejections that flowed into my mailbox, I decided to write a refreshing, fun book that had never been attempted: the comparison of foods and flavors and flags in the oldest city in America. My husband and I had fled South Carolina for our native Florida, and St. Augustine seemed the perfect place to find solace and peace. My many loves and interests in history, the environment, and food led me to choose the topic—Flavors of St. Augustine: An Historic Cookbook.

"I continue to work on Affırmed even as I begin a new book about my new old home, DeLand, Florida. My husband and I had longed to return to the place of our youth and out meeting and our college days, and four years ago we were fortunate enough to do so after a thirty-four-year absence. We're home, for good, where we were always meant to be.

"The little writing that I do stems from my belief that we should leave this world a better place than it was when we arrived. I hope that in the small sum of my words life will be made a bit more pleasant for all who partake of what I have said."