Smucker, Barbara Claassen (1915-2003)

Newton Kansan obituary: 2003 Aug 1 p. 2

Birth date: 1915 Sep 1

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2003 Aug 11 p. 7

text of obituary:

Author of 14 children's books dies at age 87

By Mennonite Weekly Review staff

BLUFFTON, Ohio — Barbara Claassen Smucker, the author of 14 wel-regarded books for children, died July 29 in Bluffton. She was 87.

One of Smucker's books, Underground to Canada, was named one of the 50 best books of all time in Canada. A final book, Selina and the Shoo Fly Pie, was published in 1999.

Smucker had received numerous awards for her writing, including an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Bluffton College in 1989. Other awards include the Canada council Award and the Vicki Metcalf Award.

Smucker's first novel, Henry's Red Sea, was published in 1955.

But it was her account of a young fugitive slave, Runaway to Freedom, that earned Smucker some of her best reviews.

The book, based in part on stories Smucker heard as a child from a former slave, was noted for its scrupulous documentation and emphasis on little-known slave histories.

"Barbara Smucker has impeccable civil rights credentials," a New York Times reviewer wrote in 1978. "[This] well-wrought book should be read by all children."

Smucker's experiences living in Chicago during the volatile 1960s informed her novel, Wigwam in the City, an account of Native Americans trying to adjust to urban life.

Another novel,Days of Terror, recounted the Mennonite migration from Russia.

Smucker was born Sept. 1, 1915, at Newton, Kan., the daughter of Cornelius and Addie Claassen. She grew up in Newton and graduated from Kansas State University with an English degree.

She studied library science at Rosemary College in Illinois, where she worked as a librarian.