TOM WILLEY'S PODCAST — RADIO 81.1 FM FRESNO
Local land and water activist, Trudy Wischemann, and I had a wonderful discussion about Wilma's life and her work on the Culture in Agriculture segment of Tom Willey's long-running radio show, Down on The Farm. You can Live Stream this lively Podcast on Free Speech Radio 81.1 FM at https://tdwilleyfarms.com/podcast-down-on-the-farm-with-tom-willey/
Library HighlightS: the Life of Poet Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel during American Archives Month
by Emily Lin
The Library hosted a program last week with Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel’s biographer, Betty Blanks. A close friend and “surrogate daughter” of Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, Ms. Blanks shared a history with the poet as a child of Dust Bowl migrants.
“Wilma and I were like family. When I first met her, the sound of her voice was so familiar to me. I recognized the people in her poems. She spoke about back home with the same longing that I had always heard from the elders in my own family,” said Blanks. “I was born right here in the Valley, in Visalia. But I recognized Wilma’s longing for that old ‘home,’ because I always heard that same deep longing expressed by my own family.” Read More.
THE GOOD LIFE — Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel-Tulare's Biscuits & Gravy Poet
by Terry Ommen
Although we were contemporaries, I never met Wilma McDaniel and I very much regret that. I hadn't discovered San Joaquin Valley literature during those years - too busy working and raising a family, I guess. I acquired my first McDaniel book by accident in probably the late 1990s. It was a small hardcover publication called The Red Coffee Can. The Raggedy Ann doll artwork on the dustcover is what caught my attention. I thought it was a children's book, so without opening it, I just put in on my bookshelf, not realizing that the author had already achieved recognition as the "Okie Poet." Read More.
SUN-GAZETTE — WILMA'S LABORS
by Trudy Wischemann
Betty was one of Wilma’s closest companions for her final 15 years. Also a child of Dust Bowl parents, Betty’s family stories rhymed so well with Wilma’s that she served as a daughter to this spinster Okie poet. But Wilma, a true Oklahoman, left much unsaid. It was only after her death in 2007 that Betty found herself wanting to track down the many loose ends in Wilma’s story. Read More.