Bess Streeter Aldrich: 1881-1954

Writing became the family's living in 1925, when Charles Aldrich, a partner in the Elmwood bank, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 53. "I'm mighty glad I have my little talent for writing," she wrote to a friend, "because it's going to be bread and butter for us." She had started out under the pen name Margaret Dean Stevens, and The Rim of the Prairie became a bestseller. One of her novels became the 1941 film Cheers for Miss Bishop, which had its world premiere in Lincoln. She entered the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1973.

What the plaque says

Bess Streeter Aldrich 1881-1954 "Love is more like a light that you carry ... that is what love is to a woman - a lantern in her hand," says Abbie Deal, the courageous heroine in Bess Streeter Aldrich's novel about the pioneers who with dreams and hard work forged this great State of Nebraska. This memorable work became a veritable text-book of life on the prairie, the development of Nebraska; it was translated into many foreign languages. The Rim of the Prairie, A Lantern in Her Hand, A White Bird Flying, Miss Bishop, Spring Came on Forever and Song of Years are among her novels. Mother Mason and The Cutters are remembered among her many stories of family life. Bess Streeter Aldrich was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, was educated at Iowa State Teachers College, taught school in Iowa and Utah, married Captain Charles S. Aldrich, settled in Elmwood and raised their four children. Mrs. Aldrich portrayed life with a cheerful realism which set her apart from most other writers of the time. Her immense popularity as an author was due not only to her ability to convey life on the prairie most vividly but also to the delicate touch by which she portrayed the warmth, feelings, and personality of her characters. Elmwood Library Board Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum — 12 mi
  Two hangar-sized halls beside I-80 near Ashland holding the bombers and reconnaissance planes of the command that ran America's nuclear force from Offutt, south of Omaha, from 1948 to 1992.
• Nebraska State Capitol — 21 mi
  Bertram Goodhue's 400-foot tower on the prairie, built in four phases from 1922 to 1932 and paid off on completion, home of the only one-house legislature in the country.
• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park — 24 mi
  J. Sterling Morton's estate in Nebraska City, a four-room house of 1855 grown to 52 rooms among the trees he planted, home of the man who proposed Arbor Day in 1872.

More markers nearby

• St. Patrick's Cemetery — 11 mi
• Gretna Fish Hatchery — 12 mi
• Prehistoric Burial Site — 13 mi
• Nebraska City-Fort Kearny Cutoff — 13 mi