calsfoundation@cals.org
March 26, 1970
Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni, an Italian-born poet and writer who came to the United States with her parents when she was ten years old, died in Fayetteville (Washington County); she is buried in Fayetteville’s Catholic cemetery. Marinoni was named poet laureate of Arkansas in 1953 by act of the General Assembly, and she held the title the remainder of her life. She was a prolific writer whose poetry and short stories were printed in hundreds of journals. Her work to improve appreciation of poetry and her many contributions to charitable and literary causes moved Governor Winthrop Rockefeller to proclaim October 15, the day on which Poetry Day is observed, to be Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni Day.