Newspapers / Chowan University Student Newspaper / Oct. 1, 1973, edition 1 / Page 9
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Dr. Bernice Harris, Acclaimed Author, Claimed By Death Dr. Bernice Kelly Harris, acclaimed author and plajTvright of Seabord and well-known as the teacher of the Chowan College Creative Writing Class since the spring semester of 1963, died Sept. 13 in a Durham con valescent home where she had been a patient for five months. Her death has prompted numerous tributes, both to Dr. Harris as an individual of warm th, and compassion and love for her eastern North Carolina, and as one of the state’s greatest writers, in company with Thomas Wolfe, according to one editorial. But one of the finest tributes was delivered by Chowan’s president. Dr. Bruce E. Whitaker, who conducted the funeral of Dr. Harris. His remarks are printed elsewhere on this page as is an editorial that appeared in the Raleigh NEWS AND OBSERVER on Sept. 15. Dr. Whitaker was instrumental in encouraging Dr. Harris to begin the Crative Writing Class at Chowan. Winner of the Mayflower Cup for Fiction and the North Carolina Award for Literature, Dr. Harris wrore always of the simple people of her eastern North Carolina. Her short stories were published in national magazines ans her novels were published in this country and abroad. Her first novel, “Purslane,” was the first novel ever published by the University of North Carlina Press. Her second novel, “Portulaca,” was published by Doubleday after the publisher sent a representative to tne small eastern North Carolina town of Seaboard, near Roanoke Rapids, to find her. Other novels were “Sweet Beulah Land,” “Sage Quarter,” “Janey Jeems,” and “Hear thstones.” Many readers con sider her moving autobiography “Southern Savoury” to be her best work. She was born in. the Mount Moriah community in Wake County and recieved a degree form Meredith College in nearby Raleigh. She went to Seaboard in the northeast part of the state near the Virginia line as a school teacher and there she met her husband, the Herbert Kavanaugh Harris. She is survivived by a number of nieces and nephews. Since 1963, she had been associated with Chowan College. The Creative Writing Class, under her patient and wise tuteledge, spawned numerous authors of poems, plays, narratives, essays, short stories and novels Writing careers for a number of area residents were launched by the Class. Her pupils came from many walks of life including teachers, housewives, college students, civic leaders, insurance agents and physicians to name a few. They traveled from their homes in Murfreesboro and surrounding communites in North Carlina and Virginia o meet one night each week with their belived and respected teacher. To each she imparted a spark that, under her watchful eye and encouragement, led to the writing of many crearive works.. Through her influence, many individuals and their com munities have been enriched by the writings of her students. One student summed up the appreciation of Dr. Harris’ pupils when she said: “Dr. Harris has shown me a new way of creat ivity, one that has been truly a source of pleasure and en joyment.” Since writing these words, Virginia Hamler Harding of Courland, Va. has published fer first book, a novel, WHITE TRUMPETS. It was the first novel produced by a member of the class. The class itself wrote two books as a collective endeavor. The latest was the widely - acclaimed STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN. Resolution of Appreciation ^Miss Kelly^ Made Readers Wealthy WHEREAS, The Chowan College Community, North Carolina, and the entire literary world has sustained a great loss in the passing of Bernice Kelly Harris; and WHEREAS, Mrs. Harris has enriched the lives of countless men and women — far and near — through her talents as novelist, poet, and playwright; and WHEREAS, Patrons of the arts BOARD OF ADVISORS OF CHOWAN COLLEGE, ASSEMBLED IN JOINT SESSION THIS TWENTY- FOURTH DAY OF SEP TEMBER, NINETEEN HUN DRED AND SEVENTY- THREE: 1. That we honor and pay tribute to the memory of this one who so enriched the lives of many through both her literary The death of Bernice Kelly Harris at 80 deprives mankind’s better portion of a mar velous writer, an innate humanitarian and a groucious Christian lady. At this moment it isn’t germane to resurrect the impassioned con tentions of the late James Street and other competent judges that Bernice Harris, not TTiomas Woife, is the most gifted novelist ever produced in this state Tliere is fame enough for each of these rare, disparate talents, on earth and in heaven. Wolfe went after the whole of existence as if his talent were giant, rhapsodic blotting paper drawing up creation’s very innards “Miss Kelly,” as friends and neighbors called her, stuck to the distinctive mores of Eastern Carolina, with all its repressive racism, with all its capacities for ennoblement. And in a series of exquisitely crafted novels, plays and stories, a tiny geographical realm tecomes an enduring fictional kingdom, rich, racy and always vital. “Miss Kelly” laid it on with a trowel. All the indictments of smalltown life implicit in the acid fulminations of E. W. Howe and all the inimical parodies done by Sinclair Lewis are furthered in Mrs. Harris’ extraordinary fiction. But the difference is that her novels, plays and stories are leavened vith miraculous splendor, with a compassionate humanity for life’s rejections that is always alien to Howe and Lewis. The charming lady is gone, but she has en dowed us all with an unblemished heritage If you want to know “Miss Kelly,” to know yourself, turn to “Purslane,” “Portulaca,” “Sweet Beulah LAand,” “Wild Cherry Tree Road,” “Sage Quarter,” “Hearthstones” and by all means, to “Janey Jeems.” This truly remarkable novel of a black family is proff aplenty that Bernice Kelly Harris was “a light in the wilderness” years ago, as friends and national critics proclaimed. have recognized the uniqueness production as North Carolina’s of her contribution to our literary “First Lady of Letters” and heritage through the bestowal of through her personal acquain- multiple honors and credits, including the coveted Mayflower Cup, The Master Playwright Award, The North Carolina Award for Literature, and the Presidency of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association; and tance and counsel with men and women of high estate and low. 2. That we pay special tribute to “Miss Kelly” for the unique contribution she rendered Chowan College and the im mediate region through ten years of faithful service as distinguished professor of WHEREAS, Mrs. Harris Personified and communicated a creaiive writing depth of concern for and an ap- 3. That these resolutions be preciation of the dignity of man made a part of the permanent and his work on earth through her records of these two Boards abilities as a classrom teacher, assembled, with copies church leader, and personal distributed to Dr. H. G. Jones, friend: Director, Division of Archives NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT and History, Department of RESOLVED BY THE BOARD Cultural Resources, State of OF TRUSTEES AND THE North Carolina, for Publication or other appropriate usage. For October, 1972 PAGE NINE
Chowan University Student Newspaper
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Oct. 1, 1973, edition 1
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