"Drop us a postcard."

that's the last line in Thrity Umrigar's 1998 column on the death of Fran Murphey.

& Fran did. CNN is reporting that a postcard she maild in 1962 just arrivd.

long before I met her I heard abt Fran Murphey. I was an undergrad in Kent State University's school of journalism. & she was one of the school's best-known grads. the year I was born she went to work for the Akron Beacon Journal. she was both reporter & photographer. a large woman with plain looks   she often wore pants. she spoke her mind. & she always got her story.

I'd see her sometimes hanging around the faculty offices on campus (she knew everybody) & years later at various Akron functions (she never missd an important event). & when it came time that she mentiond me in her column it was a joy because it made me feel part of the history of the Akron-Kent community.

Fran Murphey's sudden appearance in the national news so long after her death is exactly the kind of story she wd've written so well.