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Steven Lane/The Columbian
Betty Bell was a friend of late Vancouver author and poet Mary Barnard and is her literary executor.
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Courtesy of Betty Bell
Late Vancouver poet Mary Barnard
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A group of friends will gather today to share birthday cake and swap memories about a woman who, though no longer with them, left a lasting impact that reached far beyond her Clark County roots.
Today marks the centenary of late Vancouver poet Mary Barnard's birth, and friends remember her as a member of the literary elite and a native Northwesterner who could write as beautifully about a highway bridge as she could the shoreline.
“What we want to do is bring her name back to the people in Vancouver and let them know we had a true gem in our midst,” said Sue Hennum, 81, of Salmon Creek, a friend of Barnard's since the mid-1970s.
Barnard was born in Vancouver on Dec. 6, 1909, and lived much of her life here, with the exception of a few years in Buxton, Ore., and 20 years in New York City. She died in 2001 at the age of 91.
A graduate of Reed...
