Marcella Thum
Personal Information
Description
Marcella Thum, an award-winning author and librarian, died Thursday (July 11, 2002) of lymphoma at St. Mary's Health Center. She was 77 and lived in Affton. Miss Thum wrote more than 20 books, both fiction and nonfiction, on various subjects. For her first book, "The Mystery at Crane's Landing," she received an Edgar Award for best juvenile work from the Mystery Writers of America in 1965. Her nonfiction work, "Exploring Black America," was a guide to points of interest for African-Americans in 1975. For that, she received a Notable Children's Book Award from the American Library Association. She updated it in 1991, and it was published as "A Guide to Black America." She also collaborated with her sister, Gladys, on several nonfiction books, including "Exploring Military America," which pointed out battlefields and museums of interest, in 1982. Born in St. Louis, Miss Thum earned a bachelor's degree from Washington University and a master's degree in library science from the University of California at Berkeley. Throughout the 1950s, she worked as a librarian and writer for the Air Force and was stationed in South Korea, Germany, Hawaii and Okinawa and at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. With her love of traveling and her experience living abroad, she was able to set a few novels in exotic locales. She wrote "Mistress of Paradise" about the takeover of Hawaii by the United States, and "Thorn Trees," which was set in Kenya in World War I. "When she wrote her stories, she always wanted to teach the history in a way that would be interesting so people would learn," said her niece, Marilee Gilmore. "She always took the underdog side. She educated people, in a gentle way, to see the other side." She wrote primarily in her spare time. After working for the government, she became librarian at Affton High School in the early 1960s. She later was a librarian at St. Louis Community College at Meramec. She was honored as a Distinguished St. Louisan at Cupples House at St. Louis University and by the Missouri Writers Guild. Although she received numerous accolades, Miss Thum did not boast about her accomplishments. "She was very humble; nobody would guess that she was such a great writer," Gilmore said. Years ago, she was active in the St. Louis chapter of Romance Writers of America and several area writers clubs. She was a member of the Rose Society at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Mount Tabor United Church of Christ and the American Library Association. She is interred with her sister, Gladys (1920-2005). *Goodreads
Books
Jasmine
SHE WAS AS SULTRY AND HOT AS THE EXOTIC HAWAIIAN ISLANDS SHE LOVED Captain Morgan Tucker saw Jasmine dancing one night and assumed she was a tiger in bed. So he had her abducted and brought to his ship. Too late he discovered he had seduced a virgin. When Jasmine thought she was pregnant, her father forced Captain Tucker to marry her. Though they were united in passion, Jasmine believed Morgan did not really care for her. Morgan thought the beautiful creature in his bed incapable of real love. Set in the mid 1800s against the struggles of the Hawaiian people to free themselves of foreign rule, here is a passionate tale of two lovers who must learn to express what is in their hearts.
Hippocrene U.S.A. Guide to Black America
A guidebook to museums, monuments, and historic sites commemorating the achievements of black Americans and discussions of the aspects of black history and culture the sites represent.
The White Rose
The beautiful white actress and the proud black slave--worlds apart in every way but one: they were both the same woman.... When Lucinda Appleton was asked to put aside her career on the Washington stage and become a spy for the Union Army, she readily agreed. Her assignment? To work undercover in the elegant home of Mrs. Arabella Von Bruck - the Lavender Countess, a sadistic and wanton woman who would resort to murder to help the Confederate cause. Lucinda would become Sukey - the countess's black maid, and try to discover the true identity of the Confederate agent who seemed to know every movement of the Union Army. It was a shock to discover her old friend Cole Sinclair on such intimate terms with the countess. Lucinda had worshiped Cole when she was a young girl on the Appleton plantation. But love could not stand in the way now; she knew his true identity and knew that she would have to kill him.
Margarite
It was Margarite's dark haired beauty that made her jealous stepmother banish her from the Austrian court, to the exotic climes of Mexico. And it was her curvaceousness that captured the eye of the maniacal bandit, El Cuchillo, who vowed he would have his fill of Margarite before he was done. But it was Margarite's bold beauty that brought the handsome, enigmatic Patrick O'Malley to her rescue. A captain in the Union Army, he was secretly working for the United States in Mexico. Even as he fought the very people she supported, Margarite found love in Patrick's embrace as, again and again, he took her to the peaks of passion -- and beyond. Her all-consuming love would take her through the terrifying days of Mexico's fight for independence, into the court of the mad Carlota and her husband Maximilian, and back to her Austrian home where Margarite literally battles for her life -- and the love of the man she can never forget...
Mystery at Crane's Landing
A Civil War centennial celebration, held in historical New Madrid, Missouri, where families were sharply divided, is the background for this interesting present-day story which involves serious-minded Paula Jordan and her school roommate, Lucy Crane, whom she is visiting, in a series of strange and sometimes frightening events that take place at Lucy's plantation home, Crane's Landing.
Airlift!
A history of MAC, a military organization which is the "backbone of deterrence" for United States fighting forces, the largest peacetime cargo airline in the world, and a humanitarian airlift in times of disaster.
Wild Laurel
IN THE WILD WEST, DESIRE HAS NO RULES. Convicted of a murder she didn't commit, she fled to the West to escape the hangman's noose. Armed with only her wits and sensuous beauty, she sought love in an uncharted land. Stalked by two men in the High Sierra -- one a hired gun and sadist, the other the murder victim's mesmerizing brother, a man who falls in love with Laurel even as he vows revenge. Now she thirsts for only one man's lips, one man's touch...a man that fills her with passion she's never felt before....
Secret of the sunken treasure
Disappointed when her friend's accident causes them to remain on a Bahamian island while the rest of their scouting troop goes on a sailing trip, a sixteen-year-old girl soon finds herself participating in a mysterious adventure involving sunken treasure.
Exploring Black America
A guidebook to museums, monuments, and historic sites commemorating the achievements of black Americans and discussions of the aspects of black history and culture the sites represent.
Anne of the Sandwich Islands
A daughter of a sea captain voyages around the Cape in 1840 with a group of missionaries to the Sandwich Islands where she teaches school to the royal children and hopes to find her father.
Exploring literary America
A travel and reference guide to literary landmarks, sites, and settings associated with American authors from the 18th through the early 20th centuries.
Exploring military America
A travel guidebook which traces military sites and museums in the United States from Colonial times to the war in Vietnam.
Blazing Star
Star McFarland--The convent had not prepared her for the ways of the world. Now, the man of her dreams would turn her world into a living hell... Charles Bradford--Handsome and ruthless, his cruelty would force any woman into submission. And Star was no exception... Michael Kelly--His mixed blood and Mexican heritage had divided his loyalties. He was sure of only one thing -- his love for the beautiful Star... She was an innocent girl from St. Louis. Protected by the convent. Protected by her father. Now, Star had risked everything to run away with the man she loved. And as America's war with Mexico raged around her, the innocent girl became an exquisite woman. A woman who realized, perhaps too late, exactly what she wanted...