A Children's Literature Association Eulogy to Carol Gay: The University of Missouri-Kansas City May 17, 1986

A CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ASSOCIATION EULOGY TO CAROL GAY The University of Missouri-Kansas City May 17, 1986 JILL P. MAY Purdue University On December 18, 1985 Dr. Carol Gay died. Those of us who knew Carol personally and who continue to love her feel a great loss. As a charter member of ChtA, Carol agreed to set up the association's archives and to house them at Youngstown State University. These past few years Carol served as chair of the Scholarship Committee. At one point her committee was considering my application for the first Weston Woods Scholarship. Since we were good friends, Carol wanted the committee to decide without her vote. She believed that the awards should be presented to favorable candidates who had been systematically and unbiasedly reviewed. Once again, Carol's organizational strengths and high principles prevailed. I sat at the ChtA Board meetings for three years before I really knew Carol. Always efficient and prepared, she never imposed her attitudes upon the group. Had I not proposed that ChtA support a program of literary criticism for elementary and middle schools we might never have really known each other. When that board meeting was over, Carol came to me and asked if we could talk more. "I'm a dreamer too," she said, "and I think we're working along the same lines. Have you heard of the Youngstown English Festival?" When I admitted that I hadn't, Carol began to explain the Festival. Conceived by Carol and her husband, Professor Thomas Gay, in memory of their thirteenyear -old daughter, Candace, who had died of cancer, the English Festival began in 1979. The entire program of activities, which included reading young adult literature, writing essays, and working in small groups in creative writing programs, expanded from one day to three days. About 3,000 students attend each year and anxiously await to see who will win the coveted writing awards. For the years 1984-85 I was lucky enough to participate in the Festival. As a participant, I met the judges, talked with the youngsters, and watched the awards ceremonies. The Youngstown State University English Festival is a model composition and criticism program. It combines the best of all things: university, school, and community cooperative planning; involvement of local classroom teachers, university English professors, and young people in a three-day event; and acknowledgement that much can be learned by reading, discussing and writing about young adult literature. Last November Carol and Tom Gay were recognized for their accomplishments by the English Department of the Youngstown Public Schools. The Board of Education sponsored a pageant loosely based upon their lives entitled "Once Upon Forever," and presented them with a formal Resolution of Commendation and Appreciation. In addition to her work with the festival Carol devoted her professional time to writing and teaching. Her scholarship contained much about children's literature. This Spring issue of the ChLA Qu ar te rly contains Carol's wonderful article about the Anne of Green Gables series. Always in tune with womanhood and family, Carol wrote: 154 The life stories of these women, joyful and tragic, do not disturb the plot line of the novels. . .for the novels depend not on plot, but on the even flow of life, women's life. They revolve around a steady pattern of breakfast, dinner, and supper, and the intricate relationships between neighbors, mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, and the problems of growing up and raising children. Carol's department Chair, Dr. Barbara Brothers, remembers team teaching a graduate class on women in literature and says, "Not only did Carol enlarge my knowledge of literature and literary history but also through sharing her experience, values, and concerns, she helped me and the students in the class to honestly reflect upon the experiences of the characters and the struggles of the women writers we read, as well as to examine those experiences and struggles in contexts of our own lives. Carol gave us a new and fuller understanding of ourselves." My own relationship with Carol included philosophical talks about husbands, children, and careers. Her always positive attitude, wonderful sense of humor, and practical views made me...