Margaret Truman, the mystery writer, died recently at the age of 83. I wonder how many people recognize her name? She was born in 1924, long before the women's movement, and she said this: "I've had three or four different careers," she told an interviewer in 1989. "I consider being a wife and mother a career. I have great respect for women — both those who go out and do their thing and those who stay at home. I think those who stay at home have a lot more courage than those who go out and get a job."
Miss Truman has always interested me because so far as I know, she was the only working classical singer to transform into a fulltime novelist--and a genre novelist, at that!
I wasn't born when she was singing, and arguably my own musical career was more successful than hers, although less notorious (I'm not, for example, the daughter of a president). But I've always known about her. I can't remember why. And then she went on to write a number of reasonably successful mysteries. The last one, MURDER ON K STREET, was only published last year. Let's be fair and admit that she probably sold lots more copies of her books than I have yet. But I'm still working.
And wouldn't that be nice, to be working right till the end? Rest in peace, Margaret. And congratulations.
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