Deborah Dickey on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Romanza Presents ...

On Thursday, May 15, 2025, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., Deborah Dickey shares stories about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in the Voorhees Mission House at St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church.

Deborah Dickey, author, playwright, and educator, wrote and directed the play Cross Roads: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Norton S. Baskin in Unguarded Moments, which A Classic Theatre produced in 2020.

Dickey has extensively researched Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, particularly the letters shared between Rawlings and her husband. The couple was separated during World War II, when Baskin served as an ambulance driver on the India-Burma front, and they wrote hundreds of letters. This presentation focuses on their correspondence during their separation.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Yearling, married Norton Sanford Baskin in 1941, and nearly 900 letters she wrote to Norton are in the University of Florida Special Collections. Baskin was a hotelier and owned and operated the Castle Warden Hotel in St. Augustine, now the site of Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. He has been described as the "perfect southern gentleman, and the world's greatest storyteller."

The event includes wine and cheese.

Admission: Free

When: Thursday, May 15, 2025, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Where:  The Voorhees Mission House at St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church, on the corner of Lovett Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

About Romanza Festivale

This event is part of the annual two-week Romanza Festivale of Music and the Arts, showcasing historical, cultural, and creative events celebrating all things St. Augustine. From May 2 - 18, 2025, the nation's oldest city will be jam-packed with music and dance concerts, living history events, historical tours, live theater, and art exhibits. To find out more about the two weeks of events, visit here.