Local author looking for legendary Aurorans to interview
By Matt Hanley mhanley@stmedianetwork.com February 14, 2012 10:04AM
Jo Fredell Higgins
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Updated: March 16, 2012 8:04AM
AURORA — Local author Jo Fredell Higgins is hoping that you might know a few local legends. Higgins is working on a book about the people and places that have shaped Aurora during the last 175 years.
“Legendary Locals: Aurora” will be Higgins’ eighth book. She’s previously written postcard and picture histories of Naperville, Geneva, Montgomery, DeKalb and Aurora. She also wrote a novel, “A Song for Cecilia,” about the Orphan Trains.
This time, she’s focused on the movers and shakers in the City of Lights.
“I have 120 pages to tell the leadership story of the cream of the cream,” she said.
Higgins has already conducted dozens of interviews for the book, sometimes two per day. Among the people she’s highlighting are prominent local figures like first postmaster Burr Winton, Aurora’s founding brothers Samuel and Joseph McCarty, former Mayor Al McCoy and longtime community activist Marie Wilkinson. Additionally, she has written profiles of the GAR Memorial Hall and Roundhouse. In the final book, each person or place will get a photo and small biography highlighting their accomplishments.
“It’s really quite a treat for me to meet all these wonderful, wonderful educated people who have contributed so much to the community,” said Higgins, a former Waubonsee Community College English and literacy teacher. “I love it. I’m not a person to sit behind a computer for eight hours a day. I need to be out with people.”
Now, Higgins is hoping someone in the community will be able to suggest a few people that she hadn’t yet thought of.
“What I’m trying to do is generate interest and enthusiasm for someone in the neighborhood or church to say: ‘Hey, have you thought of ... ,’” she said. “It cannot be just that they’re doing a great job because that’s most people. I’m also looking at what they did for the city of Aurora.”
Anyone who has a nomination can contact Higgins at poetrylady45@yahoo.com, through Facebook or at 630-851-4401.
Higgins said the manuscript will be submitted this fall and the book will be published by Arcadia Publishing in 2013 as a follow-up to the city’s 175th birthday this year.
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