Who is Rita Frances Dove?
Who is Rita Frances Dove? The world of poetry recognizes her as Rita Dove. Dove is an American poet and author. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1993, the first African American to be appointed, and received a second special appointment in 1999.[1] Dove is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Dove was born 28 August 1952 in Akron, Ohio to Ray Dove, the first African American chemist to work in the U.S. tire industry (as research chemist at Goodyear), and Elvira Hord, who achieved honors in high school and would share her passion for reading with her daughter.[2] In 1970 Dove graduated from Buchtel High School as a Presidential Scholar, making her one of the 100 top American high school graduates that year. Later, Dove graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from Miami University in 1973 and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1977. In 1974 she held a Fulbright Scholarship from Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany.
Dove taught creative writing at Arizona State University from 1981 to 1989. She received the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry, and in 1993, at age 40, she was named Poet Laureate of the United States by the Librarian of Congress, an office she held from 1993 to 1995 as the youngest person, and as the first and to date only African American. Gwendolyn Brooks had been the last Consultant in Poetry in 1985-86, prior to U.S. Congress’ action renaming the position Poet Laureate.
Rita Dove served as Special Bicentennial Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress in 1999/2000, along with Louise Glück and W. S. Merwin. In 2004 then-governor Mark Warner of Virginia appointed her to a two-year position as Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth. In her public posts, Dove concentrated on spreading the word about poetry and increasing public awareness of the benefits of literature. As Poet Laureate, she also brought together writers to explore the African diaspora through the eyes of its artists. Since 1989 she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she holds the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English.
Dove’s work cannot be confined to a specific era or school in contemporary literature; her 
wide-ranging topics and the precise poetic language with which she captures complex emotions defy easy categorization. Her most famous work to date is Thomas and Beulah, published by Carnegie-Mellon University Press in 1986, a collection of poems loosely based on the lives of her maternal grandparents, for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. She has published nine volumes of poetry, a book of short stories (Fifth Sunday, 1985), a collection of essays (The Poet’s World, 1995),
and a novel Through the Ivory Gate (1992).
In 1994 she published a play The Darker Face of the Earth; 
revised stage version 1996), which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon in 1996 (first European production: Royal National Theatre, London, 1999). She collaborated with composer John Williams on the song cycle “Seven for Luck” (first performance: Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, 1998, conducted by the composer). For “America’s Millennium”, the White House‘s 1999/2000 New Year’s celebration, Ms. Dove contributed — in a live reading at the Lincoln Memorial, accompanied by John Williams’s music — a poem to Steven Spielberg’s documentary The Unfinished Journey. Dove’s latest collection of poetry, Sonata Mulattica, 
was published in April 2009.
Besides her Pulitzer Prize, she has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them 22 honorary doctorates, the 1996 National Humanities Medal / Charles Frankel Prize, the 3rd Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities in 1997[3], and most recently, the 2006 Commonwealth Award of Distinguished Service in Literature, the 2008 Library of Virginia Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2009 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal and the 2009 Premio Capri (Italy). From 1994-2000 she was a senator (member of the governing board) of the national academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa, and she is currently a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Dove lives in Charlottesville with her husband, the German-born writer Fred Viebahn. They have one daughter, Aviva Dove-Viebahn (born 1983).
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Black On A Saturday Night” Rita Dove
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Did someone move that body?
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The body of a Memphis woman missing since January was found Monday 15, 2010 under the mattress of the hotel room where she had been living.
“The hotel staff actually made the discovery and called us,” says Joseph Scott with the Memphis Police Department.
On January 27, 2010 Sony Millbrook was reported missing to the Memphis Police Department after she failed to pick-up her children from school. Officers were notified after family members received a call from the school that Sony had not picked up the children from school.
Family members advised officers that they checked the hotel where Sony Millbrook has been residing and she was not there. The family indicated no one was in the room. Sony had been staying at the Budget Lodge room 222 at 1533 East Brooks and was last seen there at 7:00 am by a staff member who advised officers the room had been locked out today for lack of payment but all of personal belongings were still inside the apartment. Officers contacted the Budget Lodge to verify this information via telephone.
The case was assigned to the Missing Persons Bureau for follow-up investigation, however due to the nature of the incident the case was reassigned to Homicide in February. A Homicide Investigator conducting a follow-up went to the Budget Lodge, and spoke to two clerks and a security guard. The investigator learned that Ms Millbrook did not make a payment after January 26th and her belongs were boxed up and the room released for rental. The family had been there on the 27th and 28th and removed items from the room. The room had been rented three times since January 29th till February 4th.
Homicide Investigators located Millbrook’s boyfriend, LaKeith Moody, and interrogated him during the course of the investigation and later charged him with a gun violation. He is currently in Mason, TN being held on a federal gun charge. Moody remains a person of interest in this case.
On March 15, 2010 Homicide Investigators were called to the Budget Inn room 222 where the body of a female had been located under the bed, after a report of bad odor was reported in the room. The body was identified as Sony Millbrook and it is apparent that she was the victim of a homicide.
As I have listen to this story I keep thinking, how come no one smelled the decomposing body? After a few days a unbearable stench will surround the area. To make matters worse that room was rented out 5 times and no one even noticed that smell… Now as I look at it from this point of view if for over a month no one even noticed the smell then in the last week it becomes unbearable to the point that they call the police, isn’t that strange? Maybe, just maybe it was placed in that area within the last week or so…
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Elijah Alexander has died he was 39
Former NFL linebacker Elijah Alexander has died after a nearly five-year battle with cancer. He was 39.
Medical City Hospital spokeswoman Bianca Jackson said Alexander died Wednesday night at the Dallas facility. She declined to comment on cause of death.
Alexander was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, in 2005, four years after his career ended in Oakland.
The former Kansas State player spent nine seasons with four teams. After one year with Tampa Bay in 1992, Alexander spent three seasons each in Denver and Indianapolis. He made 29 starts in 30 games for Oakland during the final two years of his career in 2000-01.
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Colleen Kay Hutchins died at age 83
Colleen Kay Hutchins , a native of Salt Lake City, Utah was crowned as Brigham Young University Homecoming Queen in 1947 with Jean Romney and Myrlene Romney as her attendants. In 1952, she was crowned as Miss America. [1]
(May 23, 1926 – March 24, 2010)
She is the mother of former NBA player and current interim head coach of the New Jersey Nets, Kiki Vandeweghe and grandmother of 2008 US Open – Girls Singles winner Coco Vandeweghe. She resided, until her death, with her husband Ernest Vandeweghe, a native of Canada, in Indian Wells, California.
She died on March 24, 2010 in Newport Beach, California at age 83.
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Harold McGraw, Jr.died he was 92
Harold W. McGraw Jr., the former chief executive officer of McGraw-Hill Cos. who fought off a hostile takeover of the family business, has died. He was 92.
McGraw Jr. died at his home this morning, New York-based McGraw-Hill said today in a statement. He was chairman emeritus of McGraw-Hill. His son Harold “Terry” McGraw III has led the company as CEO since 1998, adding the title of chairman in 2000.
“My father was a passionate and principled leader, who led McGraw-Hill with an educator’s heart and an insistence that the underlying principles guiding the company since its founding in 1888 — integrity, quality, value and excellence — would endure,” McGraw III said in the statement.
McGraw-Hill, founded in 1888 by McGraw Jr.’s grandfather James H. McGraw, owns Standard & Poor’s ratings service, an education publishing business and J.D. Power and Associates. McGraw Jr. joined the company as a book sales representative in 1947 after stints in advertising and book retailing.
McGraw Jr. ran the company as CEO from 1975 to 1983 and stayed on as chairman through 1988. During his tenure, he fought off a hostile takeover attempt by American Express in 1979. He retired in 1988 at 70 after being elected chairman emeritus.
He contributed to literacy organizations and established the Business Council for Effective Literacy. He received the Literacy Award in 1990 from President George H.W. Bush in recognition of his commitment to education.
McGraw Jr. was born in New York on Jan. 10, 1918. He graduated from Princeton University in 1940 and served as a captain in the Army Air Corps in World War II. In 1940 he married Anne Per-Lee, who died in 2002.
He is survived by three children: McGraw III, Robert P. McGraw, who is on the company’s board, and Suzanne McGraw. Another son, Thomas, died in 2006. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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