FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 4, 2010

CONTACT:  Jeff Mammenga, Media Coordinator, (605) 773-6000, Jeff.Mammenga@state.sd.us

History Book Club to Discuss Growing Up in Small Towns

PIERRE, S.D. -- Members of the History and Heritage Book Club will discuss an experience shared by many South Dakotans when they meet in March: growing up in a small town.

Small-town Boy, Small-town Girl: Growing up in South Dakota, 1920-1950, by Eric Fowler and Sheila Delaney, was selected by book club members as the featured selection when they meet at 7 p.m. CST on Tuesday, March 9, at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre.

Fowler was raised in a low-income, single-parent family at Milbank. After receiving his doctorate from Iowa State University, he worked for many years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico before retiring in Albuquerque, N.M.

Delaney’s father was a Mitchell physician and surgeon. She experienced the wealth and occasional grandeur of Mitchell’s social elite. In the early 1960s, Delaney moved to the southwestern United States, where she worked, attended school and raised a family. She retired in Albuquerque.

The book club is sponsored by the South Dakota Heritage Fund, the nonprofit fund-raising partner of the South Dakota State Historical Society, and the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

Small-town Boy, Small-town Girl is one of the newest books released by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

“Many people can relate to the experiences in the book recounted by Eric Fowler and Sheila Delaney,” said Heritage Fund President Patricia Miller.

The speaker at the meeting will be Molly P. Rozum. She edited the book by Fowler and Delaney. Rozum also provides the introduction, drawing together Fowler’s account of growing up in Milbank and Delaney’s memoirs of growing up in Mitchell.

Rozum is a native of Mitchell and has degrees in United States history, folklore, and American studies. She received her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rozum is an associate professor of history at Doane College in Crete, Neb., where she has been a faculty member since 2001.

Rozum will join the meeting by telephone. Others are welcome to join the discussion by telephone, too. Arrangements should be made in advance by calling Dorinda Daniel at (605) 773-6006 or emailing her at Dorinda.Daniel@state.sd.us. The cost of the telephone call will be borne by those calling into the meeting.

Small-town Boy, Small-town Girl is available at the Heritage Store at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre and the Heritage Store at the Capitol. History and Heritage Book Club members receive a 10 percent discount, and SDSHS members receive an additional 5 percent discount when they purchase the book at either store.

Future book club selections are What is the What by Dave Eggers at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 13, and Waiting for Coyote’s Call by Jerry Wilson at noon on Monday, May 10. The book club meetings take place at the Cultural Heritage Center.

For more information about the History and Heritage Book Club, call (605) 773-6006.

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The South Dakota Heritage Fund is a private charitable nonprofit that seeks funding to assist the South Dakota State Historical Society in programming and projects to preserve South Dakota’s history and heritage for future generations.

The South Dakota State Historical Society is a division of the Department of Tourism and State Development and strives to help the state meet the goals of the 2010 Initiative by enhancing history as a tool for economic development and cultural tourism. The society is headquartered at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. The center houses the society’s world-class museum, the Archives, and the historic preservation, publishing and administrative/development offices. Call (605) 773-3458 or visit www.history.sd.gov for more information. The society also has an archaeology office in Rapid City; call (605) 394-1936 for more information.