Eleanor Lambidakis
(early
editor of the ‘Council newsletter)
She'd
put some of her poetic musings that caught my attention in the early ‘Council
(National
Council on Stuttering) newsletters
she tirelessly edited and published for many many years. I always
wanted to meet Eleanor but never did. She was visiting here in the
Bay Area (maybe a decade ago) but I was unaware of it at the time.
I found out a few weeks afterward of it and somehow found myself talking
to her son (here locally, as I recall) on the phone and somehow got the
feeling that that may have been the last opportunity I might ever have
had to see her.
Back in the old ‘Council days (70's, 80's), I remember Herb Goldberg
lobbying at one of our Conventions in DeKalb, Illinois to try to get
funding so she could attend one of our Conventions there. And I
remember another ‘Council Convention years later I attended that put
Sandra Wagner in tears (I think she might have almost resigned as
Executive Director on the spot from the heartbreak) when the
editorship was changed. I agreed with Sandra. It made no
sense to me. It was a funky homespun typewritten 'Xeroxed and
stapled' newsletter that I liked.
Somehow, I remember a phone conversation with her back in my NYC days, a
bit after Sidney Fields did that terrific article
about me in '79 in the Daily News. She wanted to get permission
from them to publish it in her newsletter.
Self-esteem. Thanks Eleanor.
Geoffrey |