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Monday, September 22, 2008
The loss of an award-winning writer - and mentor
Sad news on the state wire this week about the death of Mary Garber.
Mary probably wasn’t well-known in this part of North Carolina, but I’ll bet hundreds of kids who played high school sports around Winston-Salem remember her. So do their parents.
Mary was a longtime sports writer for the Winston-Salem Journal. I remember her well from my earliest days in journalism, when I was a shaggy haired college kid covering preps on weekends 30 years ago.
Even in the late 1970s, seeing a woman sports writer wasn’t that big a deal. I learned more than I could begin to tell you about writing of all kinds from Sarah Sue Ingram, then a sports writer at the High Point Enterprise.
But what set Mary apart from - well, just about everyone - was the fact that she was at a high school ball game of one kind or another every weekend, every Tuesday, for every holiday basketball tournament and who knows how many other events that I never attended.
She was in her early 60s then. She’d climb the bleachers in her blue sneakers and knit cap, and she’d take notes and offer pointers to kids like me trying to keep track of fumble recoveries and technical fouls. Always with a smile on her face. Always with an attention to detail and an eye on her watch. Not making deadline was out of the question.
I didn’t realize until reading her obituary today how prized she was by her peers. She was the first woman to win the Red Smith Award - the highest sports writing honor given by The Associated Press Sports Editors.
She never talked about such accolades when I knew her. The kids on the field or court in front of us were far more important.
Mary Garber was 92 when she died Sunday.
