Frances Gray Patton

Frances Gray Patton (March 19, 1906 - March 28, 2000) was an American short story writer and novelist. She is best known for her 1954 novel "Good Morning Miss Dove."

She was born in Raleigh, North Carolina to Robert Lily, an editor for the "Raleigh Times" and Mary McRae, a writer and the first female to enroll at the University of North Carolina. From childhood, Patton expressed an interest in writing. She began to pursue a writing career at the University of North Carolina where she held a playwriting fellowship. She was active in the theater and published her first play in the college magazine. Following her marriage to Lewis Patton, a professor at Duke University, Patton settled into her role as a faculty wife and raised three children, a son and twin daughters. She began to focus her writing on short stories and in 1945, she published her first story titled "A Piece of Bread." The story won a Kenyon Review Prize and was included in 1945 edition of the O. Henry Memorial Prize Stories.

During the next decade, Patton established a relationship with "The New Yorker" magazine and they would publish over two dozen of her stories. Her stories also appeared in such publications as "Harper's", "McCalls", The Saturday Review of Literature and "Collier's Weekly". A collection of stories from the New Yorker comprised her first book, "The Finer Things of Life", which was published in 1951. The book received praise from critics. Marge Lyon wrote in the "Chicago Sunday Tribune" that the stories were "whimsical in spots, faintly poignant in others, but lit with a glowing, humorous aura made up of bright observations, sparkles of wit, and diamond bright philosophy, shot with incandescent characterizations."

Patton published "Good Morning Miss Dove" in 1954 which became a bestseller. The book, which tells the story of a beloved geography teacher in a small town, originated from an earlier story Patton wrote titled "The Terrible Miss Dove." Charles Poore wrote in the "New York Times" that the novel was "ruthlessly sentimental" and "a cheerful mixture of "Goodbye Mr. Chips" and "Mary Poppins", with touches of the rigorous way to salvation from "Life With Father"." The book was featured as a Book of the Month Club selection and made into a successful 1955 film starring Jennifer Jones in the title role.

Patton published another short story collection in 1959 titled "A Piece of Luck" and a final collection in 1969 titled "28 Stories." In addition to writing, she taught creative writing courses at both Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

Patton's stories of Southern life and manners eventually earned her the nickname "The Jane Austen of the South".

She died at the age of 94 at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

ources

*Contemporary Authors
*New York Times Obituary, April 2, 2000.