May 20, 2007

When her husband died in 1897, Bernie Babcock decided she could support herself and five children with her writing. During the next sixty-five years, she authored over forty popular novels and numerous other pieces. In 1903, she became the first Arkansas woman to be included in Authors and Writers Who’s Who. She was also the first president of the Arkansas Branch of the National League of Pen Women. In the early 1950s, she retired to a small home atop Petit Jean Mountain, where she died in 1962.