by Terrance McArthur

This week we have something a bit different, a review of the non-fiction book Pick Up Your Name and Write by Betty Blanks, we also have an interesting interview with Betty. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book (and a bit more) and a link to purchase it from Amazon.

Pick Up Your Name and Write by Betty Blanks
Review by Terrance McArthur

A poet who captured the culture of Dust Bowl refugees, lived in the San Joaquin Valley, and most of us have never heard of her! Pick Up Your Name and Write: The Life of Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel is part of Betty Blanks’ crusade to change that lack of knowledge.

December 22, 1918-April 13, 2007—Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, born in Oklahoma, lived most of her life in the Central Valley of California (Livingston, Modesto, Mojave, Tulare, Bakersfield, Fresno, Woodlake, and more locations). She wrote poetry and stories from her childhood, but her work wasn’t distributed and noticed until the second half of her life. Wilma captured the Okie Diaspora experience in bare phrases like “Top drawers of memory/ never contain anything/ of value to me.” In 1975, Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel was named Poet Laureate of Tulare. One of her poems earned her the nickname “The Biscuits & Gravy Poet.”

Wilma worked in fields and packing houses, cared for family members, lived in subsidized housing, and spent years in communities surrounded by the cultures of Armenia and the Portuguese. A poet of the dispossessed, she gradually grew her own community of fans, supporters, and small-publishing contacts. One of them was Betty Blanks, a Visalia-born lawyer whose family shared a similar journey to California from the Dust Bowl. Blanks was a friend in Wilma’s last 14 years, sharing stories of family histories, taking her to readings where others usually read her words (Wilma was a strong, but shy woman), and eventually handling her business, legal and medical affairs.

In Wilma’s last decade, there were some special moments. In 2001, McDaniel spent an evening at Bakersfield’s Crystal Palace, where Buck Owens read out one of her poems that mentioned him. In 2003, Blanks and other friends of Wilma organized a Wisteria Tea, a hats-and-pearls affair where china teacups and poems abounded. In 2007, Wilma passed away, surrounded by nurses and aides reading her poetry to her, a fitting send-off.

Some collections of the poems, stories, and papers of Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel can be found at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; UC Merced; and historical societies in California and Oklahoma. Many library branches in the San Joaquin Valley Library System have copies of books, collections, and chapbooks that contain Wilma’s works.

Betty Blanks spent five years researching, assembling, and refining this biography. Her words show her appreciation for Wilma’s life and talents. Inclusions of the Blanks family background give a better understanding of the history, struggles, and culture of the Oklahoma-California-transplants, and enrich Wilma’s story. This is a book to savor, a poet to discover, and a life to remember.

Terrance V. Mc Arthur worked for the Fresno County Public Library for three decades. He is retired, but not retiring. A storyteller, puppeteer, writer, actor, magician, basketmaker, and all-around interesting person, his goal is to make life more unusual for everyone he meets.

Interview with Betty Blank:

KRL: How long have you been writing?

Betty: Since I was about 15 years old.

KRL: Where do you live and are you originally from the San Joaquin Valley?

Betty: I was born in Visalia and currently live here.

KRL: Why did you decide to write a book about Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel?

Betty: I realized that many people who did not know Wilma personally were writing about her. I decided that I was in a better position to tell her story because I knew her well. When I retired from my law practice, I decided to write her biography.

KRL: For those unfamiliar with her, can you tell us just a little about Wilma?

Betty: Wilma was a Dustbowl refugee. She migrated here from Oklahoma with her family in 1936. Think Grapes of Wrath. Although she was the voice of Okie culture, especially here in the Valley, her writing reflects the experience of dispossessed working people of all ethnicities and cultures.

She began writing poetry at the age of eight and wrote for her entire life. She wasn’t published regularly until she was in her mid-fifties. In the 1970s she became a celebrated literary figure. She published over 50 collections of poetry and prose. Her poetry was loved by regular folks, and she was also lauded by academics. Her work was taught in the Fresno Unified School district, in universities in California, Oklahoma and in Ivy League colleges in the east.

Wilma is the first woman, and in fact, the ONLY woman in California to receive a plaque from the United for Libraries Literary Landmark Register. It was placed on the Tulare Historical Museum in November 2022. That’s a very big deal. Those plaques are an honor reserved for revered authors like Jack London and John Steinbeck.

KRL: Can you tell us a little about your background?

Betty: My parents were also part of the Dust Bowl diaspora, and I was the first of their nine children to be born in California. I grew up in the Valley and graduated from Hanford High. I took classes at COS before moving on to UCLA. Eventually I earned a law degree at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans and practiced law in Visalia for over thirty years.

KRL: Have you written other things?

Betty: As a college student I studied journalism and contributed to school newspapers and counterculture newspapers. I have also written short stories since my youth but never made much effort to get anything published.

KRL: What do you hope people take away from reading this book?

Betty: Wilma felt it was her duty to record of the stories of her people so they would not be forgotten. Her poetry brings the people of this valley and those of her Oklahoma childhood to life in such a vivid way. She writes about people struggling to survive in very hard times. She shows us the nobility of those people and that struggle. I hope people feel a pride in their own heritage and understand the importance of knowing and telling their own history. Seems like we are in for more hard times so her poetry seems particularly relevant.

KRL: Do you have a schedule for your writing or just work whenever you can?

Betty: During my career as an attorney, I found little time to write outside the legal context. I did join a writer’s group for several years and that weekly deadline insured that I did write something more creative. Now that I have retired, I have the luxury of writing any time the mood strikes.

KRL: What is your ideal time to write?

Betty: I am a morning person and love to start off fresh with that first cup of coffee. Depending how the writing is going, I can work for hours at a stretch.

KRL: Did you find it difficult to get published in the beginning?

Betty: Yes.

KRL: Do you have a great rejection/critique or acceptance story you’d like to share?

Betty: Dealing with rejection is a fact of life for a writer. I do not deal with rejection well which is why I have never actively pursued publication when I was young. I sent the first query package for this manuscript to the University of Oklahoma Press. Within 3 days they wrote back to say they were very interested and requested the entire manuscript.

Well, I was completely giddy and started counting those chickens on the spot. When they ultimately decided not to publish, I was devastated. As an elder woman, I just did not feel up to the task of going on the hunt for a publisher and so I self-published. I would urge younger writers to do the very hard work of finding a publisher if they can because self-published work does not get the same level of respect.

KRL: Most interesting book signing story-in a bookstore or other venue?

Betty: What has been most interesting is meeting people who tell me that they knew Wilma long ago. That has happened several times. One woman was her next-door neighbor in Tulare almost 75 years ago. I love to hear from people from her deep past.

KRL: What are your future writing goals?

Betty: I have a small body of short stories that I have written over time. I would like to expand on that work and start something new as well.

KRL: Who are your writing heroes?

Betty: I love so many authors I can’t single out any one in particular. What I find heroic about them all is that regardless of the cost to their personal lives and fortunes, they kept plugging along because they had to write. Their work has expanded my vision of the world and has improved the quality of my life. I can’t imagine my life without literature.

KRL: What kind of research did you do for this book?

Betty: There are archives of Wilma’s papers at the Tulare Historical Museum, UC Merced, Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, and other, smaller collections of her papers in small libraries and historical museums in California and Oklahoma. I was able to visit all of these archives and copy voluminous amounts of diaries, letters, etc., prior to the Covid lockdown. I interviewed many people who knew her.

I had possession of the personal collections of her papers belonging to those closest to her in life as well. I also studied literature, newspaper articles, and academic writings about the Depression, getting information and books from many library archivists and researchers. I spent over three years studying Wilma’s personal papers and documentation of the history of the time and places she lived before I began to write. And, of course, I knew her personally for the last 14 years.

KRL: What do you like to read?

Betty: Almost everything. I read constantly. From classic literature to Craig Johnson’s Longmire series. Fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, history, biography, memoir, mysteries, essays, satire, comedies.

KRL: Have you any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?

Betty: Read Anne Lamont’s Bird by Bird.

KRL: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

Betty: When I was 14 years old, the Rolling Stones did a concert at Ratcliff Stadium in Fresno, and I got pulled off the stage by a police officer. My picture appeared in the Fresno Bee the next day and my mother was totally stunned. Years later a bit of that film was shown on the local news, including the part where I got pulled off the stage. I got a copy of the whole film from a guy at the station and made my own little video with a voice over narrative. Keith Richards put that same film in his bio-pic, Under The Influence. The kids in my family think their old Auntie was there at the dawn of Rock and Roll.

KRL: Do you have any pets?

Betty: One cat, Oliver. My niece and her family live next door and their dogs, Hudson, a Golden Retriever, and Patsy Cline, a French bulldog, are constant visitors in my back yard.

KRL: Is there anything you would like to add?

Betty: I will be at Fresno City College on January 28 for a reading and program about Wilma and her biography, Pick Up Your Name and Write. I invite all your readers to join me there. The program will be from 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. and located in the Old Administration Building 251.

KRL: Where can our readers find you online?

Betty: On my website: wilmaelizabethmcdaniel.com. You can find the book on Amazon.com.

You can click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

To enter to win a copy of Pick Up Your Name and Write, along with 2 books by Wilma-The Last Duststorm and Borrowed Coats, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “pick up” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen January 25, 2025. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.