Florence Virginia Foose Wilson Mayberry

Florence Virginia Foose Wilson Mayberry (September 18, 1906 – April 8, 1998) was an American writer and convert to the Baháʼí Faith. After being mostly raised by her grandparents, with her grandfather in particular, having served in the Union Army during the Civil War, she joined the religion at the age of 35. At around the same time, she began writing short fiction, eventually having a long career writing for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. In the religion, her service as a speaker was wide-ranging, and soon she advanced from position to position in the religion as first an Auxiliary Board member and then a Continental Counselor and then one serving at the International Teaching Centre – the highest appointed positions of the religion during her later years. Meanwhile, she was a successful writer with almost 20 years of continuous annual appearance in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and almost half her stories were also anthologized even as late as 2012.

Early life Born into the Foose/Foos family, her grandfather claimed the "e" was added by a Union Army clerk to his name. Through her grandmother she claimed relation to President Zachary Taylor.

Her mother Myrtle married at 16 to a 27-year-old Scot, Bill Wilson, Mayberry's father. of the mysterious meeting by the portal of the park and recalled going to the De Young Museum. And a search for a church for Sunday School was started around her 9th year.

Eventually the editor's wife asked Florence to do a piece on the religion. However Florence could not remember any details when or what she wrote when she wrote her autobiography. However see a newspaper story appeared only a few months later.

Florence's mother and brother rejoined Wilbur Walton in Stockton, California. Around then her grandfather-cum-father died in Indiana. It was also around this time when the family met the Kanno Takisha Japanese family who it turned out later had met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Oakland in 1912. A few months earlier Florence published her first known piece – a Christmas story – in Feb 1939 but was thought to have been a man.

Baháʼí Helen Grifting moved to Reno and invited the Mayberrys over to dinner. She became a companion on many family outings and through her presence the Mayberrys began to read their now two Baháʼí books but did not think had to belong to a religion.

The Mayberry's moved from an apartment near a golf course to a cottage – around the same time Helen had to downsize her apartment. Wanting to be of assistance and enjoying the meetings the Mayberry's took out a wall so they could have one big room and volunteered to host meetings.

Then there was an incident reported in Mayberry's autobiography. The community had been founded a decade earlier when Gertrude Frazier first moved to Reno. Seven adults were noted in Oct 1942. with the arrival of Eleanor Adler in July. Further meetings were held and Mayberry says she gained a greater depth of appreciation of the history of the religion in the East and the West. The declaration of Robert Takeshi Imagire in 1942 at the Mayberry home made the 9th member of the community and a Local Spiritual Assembly, the foundational administrative institution of the religion, was elected. Later Imagire was inspired by one of Florence's poems to make a painting. Gladys was chair of the assembly and Florence secretary by December 1944. In 1945 Florence was on the regional committee.

The US entered World War II in December and both brother and husband were drafted – her brother was found to have a birth defect and was excused from service.

Florence got a job with the US Employment Service. Together they had their first child March 24, 1945. Fireside gatherings grew larger. When the Reno community of Bahaʼis reached nine they elected their first assembly. Assembly noted in 1947.

Santa Paula With discharge from the military the family moved to Santa Paula though she found that the Carpenters had moved away.

A notice in the newspaper has her giving a talk November 1946 in Los Angeles at their Baháʼí Center. In the coming years both her writing and talks were gathering attention.

Florence was noticeable next as the chair of the Southern California/Arizona regional committee of Baháʼís in 1947, and also gave talks at the LA Baháʼí Center. Both Mayberry's served on the western states committee of 1949. She was also the secretary of the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce in 1948. Florence increasingly began to give talks but soon found she had a medical condition arise. It proved to be an enormous test after the initial operation which developed into experiences of great pain and multiple operations over two years. She also gave a talk at the LA Center for Ridván, a pivotal holy day in the Baháʼí calendar.

She wrestled with understanding Shoghi Effendi's leadership as head of the religion when coming out of her Protestant Christian context the Popes were considered trouble. Despite ʻAbdu'l-Bahá being an even higher leader of the religion, she didn't have a problem with that because she saw him as the ultimate grandfather. She also published a short story – "Kiko" which was collected in the best fiction of 1953.

Traveling speaker and writer on the side

US South, Convention and Conference She gave a talk in January 1953 at the LA center and in Fresno for Ridvan, 1953. In early spring of 1953 a letter arrived from the US National Spiritual Assembly asking her if she could "undertake a fortnight's teaching trip through several Southern States."(these are Florence's words as she recalled in her autobiography.)

Eastern Canada Upon return to Santa Paula and soon after arriving the Canadian assembly asked her for a similar tour of Eastern Canada which her family supported. of the death of Hand of the Cause Dorothy Beecher Baker who had died the year before. To Mayberry Backer seemed to inspire her all the more and recalled hearing her voice "Spirit is never lost, it persists evanescent, seeking open vessels. Irresistibly it flows into any ready receptor, adding spirit unto spirit."

From there she went south to Boston, then Washington, D.C., and Alexandria VA and there met Ali-Kuli Khan, father of the Marzieh who had given her her first fireside, Mariam Haney, Paul Haney then Chair of the US National Assembly in February 1954 Baltimore Maryland, and Prescott Arizona on the way home.

Auxiliary Board for the Americas Upon return to Santa Paula she was informed that as the elected delegate to the national convention had moved away she as runner-up, and was now the delegate. She was shocked to hear her name as the fourth on their list. After the conference she began a tour that gradually grew into a widespread journey - leaving Chicago heading west and variously north or south, then north along the Pacific coast with occasional visits to the Atlantic and deep south. Montana, as well as Spokane, Washington, She was on KXLF-TV and KBOW radio in Montana. An updated on her travels in February noted she had already been in Montana, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, with Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming coming up.

March 21, 1954, Florence Mayberry was on a panel of Baha'is on the Church Women's News, A Radio Program, by Ruth S. Norman, in West Virginia.

The rest of the 50s and pilgrimage

Trips In January and in February Mayberry went to Oregon to give a talk, then California. In March she started in Albuquerque, and then during Baháʼí Naw Ruz (the new year day of the Baháʼí calendar), she gave several talks around Gallup, New Mexico that made the local newspaper and went back to Albuquerque. Then Utah and Idaho in April.

In June there is a notice Mayberry was meeting with the group United American Indians in Spokane, one of the early official contacts between the Baháʼí Faith and Native Americans.

Her first trip to Alaska came July 1955. In August she helped dedicate the national Baháʼí center for Alaska, a region recognized by the Baháʼís with its own national community. Various local papers covered events. Then she proceeded south through Canada for the summer school in Geyserville Baháʼí School. Her list of travels by May in the Baháʼí News included across southern Canada to Manitoba, then south into North Dakota and then west to Washington, south and back across the western states from October through December. In February and March she was in several meetings on various of the Hawaiian Islands and was interviewed on KMVI. Then in later March she was in Milwaukee Wisconsin at a northern suburb Whitefish Bay, and at the Milwaukee Baha'i center, then north to Oshkosh. By mid-May she was in a home in Galveston giving a talk. By late May she was attending the national convention giving reports on what has happened. By the summer of 1956 she was giving local talks closer to home while she developed a traveling seminar, and was aiding in coordinating urgent meetings in Seattle and Los Angeles. Still she made a quick trip to Alaska. before rounding out her trip among the lower 48 in the north-west. before returning to her home are for one last talk in the season.

Pilgrimage On her most recent a visit to Billings, Montana, a local Baháʼí challenged her to plan to go on Baháʼí pilgrimage despite her economic limits.

She encountered a family of Persian Baháʼís on the flight from Rome to Tel Aviv. From her autobiography it appears she commented that there is not a great deal of receptivity to the religion in America, asked about the role of auxiliary board members, and asked about childhood education practices. The next morning she found her other fellow pilgrims to be Alice Dudley and Sallie Saynor. They visited the archives which at the time were housed in three rooms of the Shrine of the Báb.

That day's lunch was hosted by Ruhiyyih Khanum and then the ladies were invited over to Khanum and Effendi's current residence. Giving a talk and taught at Geyserville school in October and before meeting in southern California in November. Following the request of the Guardian the Hands developed boards for proclaiming the religion as well as protecting it from division – Florence continued on the one promoting encouraging engaging the public and stirring its members to engaging on issues. In December she was at a Baha'i conference in Las Vegas.

Winter in Alaska Mayberry called her 1958 trip to Alaska "the most dramatic" of her trips in her autobiography. From there she went to Fairbanks. Then on to Barrow, Alaska where the temperature she reports was an unusually warm 39 °F below zero. over the objections of the local Christian minister They were limited to meeting with school children's mothers. The next day was a presentation at the local theatre.

Summer in the South and West That Summer she started close to home and then she was in the outskirts of Dallas for the first time. Then she was on to Louisiana including interviews on KWKH and KSLA-TV. From there she made it to Green Acre Baháʼí School in October. Battleboro NH in October and Keene Teachers College in November Texas. Trips there were various into Spring 1959.

That Spring she was elected to the National Assembly while continuing service as an Auxiliary Board member with Horace Holley, then also a Hand of the Cause. A four-month trip accompanied by her then 13 yr old son followed and then Myrtle undertook the "scatter" pioneering goal of a town in Switzerland at the age of 70. and twin events in Phoenix and Albuquerque On return she gave local talks back in California.

To Mexico A brief trip to Alaska in February 1960, and she was back in California. Hand of the Cause William Sears suggested an auxiliary board member living in Mexico or Central America would be helpful and the Mayberry family decided on Guadalajara, Mexico. She was missed at a discussion of race issues the Baháʼís held in Wilmette, Ill. She made trips visiting national assemblies by December 1960. Then, after a return to Mexico City to consult with William Sears, she embarked on a trip through a couple of cities in Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela in 1961. That year they were each to gain their own national assembly, (she was present for the Colombian national convention.) She met the Pringle family at the San Blas Islands, specifically Ustupu, and was treated as an official representative of the religion by the island chief, or Cacique.

Still she managed a trip to Texas in February 1962, and one stop in California in March.

Moving and trips In early 1963 she also traveled to Nicaragua where she met Hooper Dunbar in Bluefields, followed by Belize, and Honduras. and Alaska in August. She visited with the Kolstoe family

The Mayberry family moved back to Santa Paula through the summer of 1963.

Mayberry's first book, a children's book entitled "The Dachshunds of Mama Island", came out in late 1963. Advertised as a Doubleday book for young readers and was recommended in The Saturday Review. The book is set in Sitka, Alaska.

In late 1963 she recalled hearing of the Assassination of President Kennedy while in one of the villages in the Yucatán.

She gave a talk for World Religion Day in Chicago in mid January 1964, and just a couple days later in Atlanta Ga, and about two weeks later she was in Memphis TN, and Texas in at the end of February for Ayyám-i-Há, a celebratory time for Baháʼís. And Mayberry personally had something to celebrate - it was in February that her first of some 32 stories plus reprints would eventually published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, now the longest-running mystery fiction magazine, with "The Motion Picture in Mrs. Leister's Mind" (in the February 1964 issue). She would continue to publish in the magazine into the 1990s. In 1965/6 her first story to be anthologized was "The Motion Picture in Mrs. Leister's Mind" in the Ellery Queen's 20th anniversary annual: 20 stories from Ellery Queen's mystery magazine. She made a touch of news as one of the few female Ellery Queen mystery writers. In between she spoke at Green Acre Baháʼí School in early April 1964, and then in Battleboro, NH. There's a break in her travels until Utah in November.

She was back for the World Religion Day observance in January 1965 and then in February she was in Seattle. Then she was in Appleton Wisconsin in April, and nearby Oshkosh. In May she was first at the US national convention. In June she was in Bakersfield CA, followed by an ABC radio program panel she was on with Hand of the Cause William Sears and others. Then she was at the Davidson Baháʼí school (later it was renamed the Louhelen Baháʼí School) in Michigan through the rest of June. Before October she was at a second session of the summer school of southern California followed by a campaign in the area, and in Seattle in September. She was in Tustin California in October. A poem of Mayberry's, World Anthem, was included in a youth compilation published by the US Baháʼí Publishing Trust. In December she was back at the Davidson Baháʼí School.

In early January 1966 she started off in Idaho. Then she was at a national assembly coordinated week long series of events for World Religion Day and Mayberry closed the series Sunday evening. Before March she was in Seattle. But in March her mother Myrtle's health declined and she went into the hospital and died in a few days, In April Mayberry gave a talk in Fresno, and May in Utah, and Montana. In later May she was in New Jersey at a meeting called by Hands of the Cause.

1966 Sep gave a talk at the Los Angeles Baháʼí Center and was profiled in the Fresno Bee. By Ridván she was at the US national convention. At the anniversary observance of the House of Worship in September 1967 Mayberry introduced the Hands of the Cause and in December at another meeting in San Francisco.

Counsellor 1968 started out similarly to past year. In February she was in Montana, a recording of her was used in Illinois in March, and Spokane Washington in April. In April she was in Seattle. While she was working at a seasons school, perhaps Geyersville, she received a phone call about her appointment as a Continental Counselor for North America – the telegram went to her home address and her husband called her about it.

She was listed as the contact address for anyone wanting direct contact with the Counselors for North America. From December 1968 to March 1969 she assisted at a series of conferences – Montreal, Oshawa, Canada, then Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, St Louis, (Phoenix), Saskatoon, Vancouver. She attended the US national convention. In June she was at a conference in Halifax and in July she still gave a talk at the Geyersville Baha'i school, and in August met with Native American Baha'is and others in Washington state. She was also later remembered in Alaska in 1969.

In 1970 a talk of hers was done close to home in Santa Paula, and then at the Geyersville school in September. For Ridvan 1970 she was in Alaska.

During the Oceanic and Continental Conferences series of 1970–71 she was assigned the one in Sapporo Japan (held early September) and she found that a round the world trip was only a little more expensive. India(200-1), Iran, (where she managed a visit to the House of the Bab) (202) and made her third visit to she accomplished a 3-day pilgrimage. This was followed by a talk in Texas in November, and then again back in her home area. Shortly after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake William Sears was the central attraction of a conference in Los Angeles Florence appeared at. She was in the Alaska national convention in 1971. July–August she was at a conference in Santa Ana.

In March 1972 the Counselors of North American held twin conferences in the US - Reno Nevada and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Florence hosted the Reno event assisted by Auxiliary Board members Margaret Gallagher, Velma Sherrill, Anthony Lease and Paul Pettit Gallagher died in 2001. Sherrill was herself appointed a counselor in 1973. Lease served until 1986 and died in 2006. Paul Pettit died in 2010. April she attended the US national convention and made it to the Alaskan one. In October she gave a talk in Montana and then Myrtle Beach SC and then the dedication of the Louis Gregory Institute.

In January 1973 she was a speaker at World Religion Day in San Francisco, and in March was giving talks in her home area. In May she attended the US national convention and then went on to the world convention to elect the Universal House of Justice and noted there were 1017 delegates.(206) Returning from that she visited in Switzerland, then Canada. On return home she received a call that she had been appointed a Counsellor for the International Teaching Center She visited there a few days later and accomplished her move to live in Haifa just as the Yom Kippur War started, (October 6, 1973.)

In August 1974 she attended a meetings Kenya, and in what was then called Rhodesia. October 1976 she was in Germany at a Baha'i conference. A biographical article was written about her as a writer was published in November. January 1977 she was in Australia. In October she was at a European conference. December she was in Singapore. Thailand in January 1977.

From 1971 to 74 she published more original stories than any other time (averaging 3 a year) and was anthologized once (see bibliography below).

February 1977 a conference looking at promulgating the religion in Mexico also took place in Mérida with more than 2000 Baháʼís attending. One third of the participants were indigenous believers from across Central America 150 of whom were Mayans. Non-Baháʼí family members of the Indians were allowed to fully attend the meeting. Three Hands of the Cause were present - Paul Haney, Rahmatu'lláh Muhájir, and Enoch Olinga, as well as Counsellor Florence Mayberry. David made a trip to Utah. Baháʼí News interviewed her about the institution in 1979.

According to her biography, in 1982, for "unsteady health", And David collapsed twice in the year or two after.

In 1984 she undertook her 18th trip to Alaska came in the spring.(146) Various of the trips had reached from the Arctic Ocean to the Bering Sea through central Alaska and the Aleutian and Kodiak Islands. She also met Indian and Inuit peoples and various attitudes they had either finding resonances in the roots of their cultures with the religion or in struggling with the confusion of "white man's ways". Newspaper coverage is found for her visit to Sitka in April. In December she was at a Baha'i conference in Hawaii.

Noted one of the "excellent writers somewhat less well-known" Ellery Queen writers, 1984. From 1983–1987 mostly reprints of her 1970s stories appeared individually or were collected in anthologies (in 1984 and 1986 she was anthologized three times each, see bibliography below.) 1986 in an anthology in an audiobook sold in Australia. 1989

In 1992–93 she wrote new pieces again which were themselves anthologized from then on, (see bibliography below.) 1991 anthology Scarlet Letters: Tales of Adultery from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. 1994 twice for the same story. 1995 and 1996 for the same story. Once upon a Crime II: Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (No. 2) 4.5 avg rating • 2 ratings by GoodReads9780312143862: Once upon a Crime II: Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (No. 2)Publisher: St Martins Pr,

Husband David preceded her in death, dying February 1994.

In 1995 she published her autobiography, The Great Adventure and had a local book signing, and had a brief profile in the LA Times. (the new one in Santiago Chile did not yet exist.) She is buried in the Marshfield Cemetery, Marshfield, Missouri.

Legacy Though she had been anthologized several times in the 1990s before her death she continued to be collected and reprinted in various works as late as 2012. In 2004 her work "When Nothing Matters" was collected in Fifty Best Mysteries. In 2005 her stories "Smiling Joe and the Twins" and "Miz Sammy's Honor" was collected and printed in Murder in Retrospect: A Selective Guide to Historical Mystery Fiction. In 2012 her story "The Secret" was collected and printed in Outcasts and Angels: The New Anthology of Deaf Characters in Literature.

The Baháʼís have also established a seasonal Baháʼí school under the sponsorship of the US National Spiritual Assembly named after her. Kevin Locke performed there in 2011.