She was just as much at ease holding court at church events, or chatting with farmers while watching Husker sports at the Bladen town bar. Well into her 90s, she held her own discussing Cather and Pavelka family history with scholars.

She also bridged a gap between bi-coastal Cather academics and residents of south-central Nebraska. Turner brought together the prairie’s past and present. “Antonette could make you feel what those old days had felt like.” “I couldn't tell you how many students and people of all ages she connected with over the years She made the connections to Cather real for those people,” said Tracy Tucker, the education director and archivist at the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud. One of the last people who lived inside the world depicted in Cather’s famed novels.

When Turner died this year, book-loving Nebraskans lost one of its last threads of connection to Cather herself. She’s the granddaughter of Anna Pavelka, the real-life inspiration for Cather’s most famous character in her most famous novel, “My Ántonia.”Īntonette Turner, holding the old sign that celebrated the large family of Anna Pavelka, Turner’s grandmother and the real-life “My Ántonia.” Turner died at age 101 in August, severing one of the last threads of real-life Nebraska connection to Cather herself. The tiny, energetic woman was Nebraska literary royalty. She died in August at age 101, still largely unknown outside her community and the small circle of Cather scholars.īut, in Webster County, a hush would fall when Toni Turner began to speak about visiting her grandmother’s orchard, meeting Willa Cather Foundation founder Mildred Bennett, or growing up speaking Czech at home and being chided for continuing to speak the language of her babička at school.

But, at many conferences, a tiny, energetic, elderly woman would rise to her feet during a question-and-answer session and, for a few minutes, steal the celebrity spotlight while holding court about Nebraska’s most famous author.Īntonette Willa Skupa Turner - Toni, to her friends - lived most of her long life in Bladen, an even smaller town down the road. So has legendary writer Maya Angelou, Golden Globe-winning actor Paul Giamatti and a drumbeat of talk show hosts, TV stars, novelists and artists. (Flatwater Free Press) - It’s not unusual to catch sight of a celebrity in Red Cloud, population 962, especially during the annual Willa Cather conference that brings a mishmash of scholars, writers and lovers of the famed Nebraska novelist to town.įirst Lady Laura Bush has appeared here.

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