1966
Edna D. Baum
(1887–1968)
Edna Ducker had vivid memories of Macatawa Park on Lake Michigan, the site of both the Duckers’ summer home and the Baums’ cottage “The Sign of the Goose.”
She married L. Frank Baum’s second son, Robert Stanton Baum, and they settled in Claremont, California. They managed an orange ranch there, and reared their children, Robert Allison, Stanton, and Florence before retiring in the 1940s. Robert died in 1958.
Edna had the best preserved of the family Oz and Baum collections. These original editions were presented by Baum to each of his four sons as the books were published. Edna lent extremely rare and unique items from her family collection for display at the first Winkie Convention. Until her death in 1968, she generously made the collection available to bibliographers and other Baum and Oz historians.
In 1965, Edna hosted the second Winkie Convention at her home. Her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Ligon Baum, served as co-host, and the guest of honor was Matilda Jewell Gage of Aberdeen, South Dakota, L. Frank Baum’s niece. The theme, in memory of the Baums’ lake house, was Father Goose: His Book.
1966
Elizabeth Ligon Baum
(1907–1971)
Elizabeth L. Baum, the widow of L. Frank Baum’s first son, Frank Joslyn Baum, participated actively as an honored guest and co-hostess of the earliest Winkie Conventions of the International Wizard of Oz Club. She was extremely generous with her Baum family collections, and made accessible to the editors of The Baum Bugle important presentation copies of L. Frank Baum’s books and his scrapbooks (now owned by the Oz Club). These materials helped bring to Club members rare and obscure information about Baum’s career and interests.
Elizabeth’s husband, who was the co-author of To Please a Child, died in 1958 before the Baum biography was completed. She subsequently helped carry on her husband’s work by making available to co-author Russell P. MacFall rare memorabilia and other information for his use. She was well acquainted with her late husband’s Baum and Oz collection, and was particularly skillful in pointing out material that was easily overlooked by researchers.