On a hot summer day, Cross Creek residents gathered in front of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ house and celebrated the late author’s birthday.
She would have turned 127 years old Aug. 8.
The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Birthday Celebration, which ran from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 5 at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park, included speeches about Rawlings’ community impact, live music, food as well as a walking tour through her property.
The Friends of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm and the state park have worked together and hosted Rawlings’ birthday celebrations for almost 25 years.
Rawlings put Cross Creek on the map when she and her husband, Charles Rawlings, moved to the rural town in 1928. She wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Yearling” and other popular works such as “Cross Creek” and “South Under the Moon” there.
Rawlings died at age 57, due to a ruptured aneurysm.
The Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm raffled off fresh marmalade made with ingredients grown on the farm and sold various pieces of work written by Rawlings for donations.
Attendees enjoyed cupcakes, drinks and mango ice cream as an homage to Rawlings’ own mango ice cream recipe in her popular cookbook “Cross Creek Cookery.”
Attendees could also tour Rawlings’ house and farm. The tour shut down after the event for maintenance until October.
Eli Tragash, a 33-year-old fiddle player for local band the Front Porch Backsteppers, has played at the event for six years but has enjoyed Rawlings’ work his entire life.
“I've just always been a fan of her writing and the park, coming to the park growing up,” Tragash said. “It’s always a pleasure to play here.”
Not only did locals come for the celebration, but visitors across the state made the journey to come and celebrate the life of one of their favorite authors.
Lisa Bone, a 64-year-old environmental educator and musician, traveled with her husband, Charlie Bone, to the state park as it marked their first stop on their road trip from Sarasota, Florida to Jacksonville.
Bone was first introduced to the park when she applied to be a park ranger in the late ‘80s but never got the job. The event was her first opportunity to visit in 40 years.
“[The event] was lovely… the excitement [was] over Marjorie as a writer and as a person… how she incorporated her life into the community and kind of brought people together,” Bone said.
Rawlings created famous works of fiction, and was a star neighbor and caretaker of the land.
Donna Green-Townsend, the 65-year-old president of the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm Inc., expressed her long admiration for Rawlings and her dedication to sharing the significance of Rawlings’ work.
“She was a true neighbor. I mean that’s just our story,” Green-Townsend said. “Everybody has a story to tell about Marjorie…She hung around with folks like Ernest Hemingway, but yet she loved her neighbors.”
Green-Towsend created a documentary titled, “From Novel to Move: The Yearling in Florida,” where she spoke with locals about how Rawlings’ work impacted them.
The documentary will be aired on WUFT-TV Broadcast at 9 p.m., Aug. 8.
“So even if you don’t know where Cross Creek is, or Florida or have never been here [Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park]. Who can’t relate to a child having to grow up and realize that sometimes you have to go from childhood to manhood?” Green-Townsend said.
Contact Emma Parker at eparker@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @emmaparkerg.
Emma Parker is a first-year journalism student. She is the metro desk news assistant. When she is not writing, she is reading a book or listening to Indie music.
