User:Howardrandallsmith/Doris Buchanan Smith

Doris Buchanan Smith (June 1, 1934 - August 8, 2002) was an American author of award-winning children’s books that were distinguished for their realism. Smith's first book, A Taste of Blackberries (Crowell, 1973), won the Josette Frank Award, the Georgia Children’s Book Award, and the Children's Best Book Prize in Holland (Zilveren Griffel). Blackberries has been translated into six languages, including Afrikaans, Dutch, Danish, French, Japanese and Spanish. Along with Blackberries, three others were named ALA Notable Children's Books; The First Hard Times, 1983, Return to Bitter Creek, 1986, and The Pennywhistle Tree, 1991, by the American Library Association.

Biography
Doris Jean Buchanan was born in Washington, D.C. to parents Charles A., and Flora R. Buchanan. At two, she began memorizing nursery rhymes that had been read to her by her mother, and then inventing stories of her own. At nine, her family moved from the nation’s Capital, to Atlanta, Georgia. Noticing Smith’s flare for story telling, A sixth grade teacher asked Smith if she intended to become a writer one day. The suggestion resonated, and a “closet” writer was born. Her parent’s divorced the next year, leaving Smith and her brothers, Bob and Jim, to be reared by their mother. While attending South Georgia College, in Douglas, Georgia, she met R. Carroll Smith. Neither of them completed their courses. Instead they married December 18, 1954. The Smith’s raised four children, and cared for dozens of foster children, one from age 12 until adulthood. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1977. While at a writer’s convention in Hawaii, Smith met Dr. Bill Curtis of Colorado, a professor of children’s literature. They were married from 1988 until Curtis’ death in 1998 from ALS. Smith, who had previously been diagnosed with diabetes and heart disease, succumbed to bone cancer in 2002.