June Bailey White is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author and a regular radio commentator for the National Public Radio program
All Things ConsideredAll Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
.
She is the daughter of
Robb WhiteRobb White was a writer of screenplays, television scripts, and adventure novels; most of the latter had a maritime setting — often the Pacific Navy during World War II. White was best known for juvenile fiction, though he has proven popular with adults as well...
, who was a fiction writer, and Rosalie White, a farmer. White grew up with her mother in Georgia, while her father lived and wrote in Hollywood. Her mother, and her South Georgian eccentricity, have been central to her writing. Her mother died in the late 1990s.
After graduating from
Florida State UniversityThe Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
in 1973, Miss White moved to
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where she married her father's best friend. After 11 years of marriage, she returned to Georgia where she taught, for more than twenty years, at the school she attended as a girl. Her friend,
Daniel PinkwaterDaniel Manus Pinkwater is an author of mostly children's books and is an occasional commentator on National Public Radio. He attended Bard College. Well-known books include Lizard Music, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Fat Men from Space, Borgel, and the picture book The Big Orange...
, convinced her to submit some commentaries to NPR. Her gravelly voice and gift for portraying the unusual personalities of people in the rural South with gentle wit proved very popular with her NPR audience. In 1999, she left teaching to concentrate on her writing.
White has penned three books,
Mama Makes Up Her MindMama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living is a 1994 autobiography by Bailey White. The book is a collection of humorous anecdotes about White's experiences as a first-grade teacher living with her mother in rural Georgia. White originally presented these anecdotes as a series of...
,
Sleeping at the Starlite MotelSleeping at the Starlite Motel: and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home is a 1995 collection of essays by Bailey White....
, and
Quite a Year for Plums.
External links