Rest in Peace, Florence

National Review ^ | January 6, 2016 | Jack Fowler

[OddLane]

Can a non-believing misanthrope rest in peace? I hope so. For odd and comical reasons, all related to National Review, and my having lived for a few years in Fredericksburg, Virginia, my former neighbor, Florence King, and I became friends. Good and lifelong. Hers came to an end today, this morning, a day after she turned 80. Florence’s final years were tough ones — she battled a number of ailments (essentially alone but for Nick, her incredibly kind and attentive neighbor) which accumulated and compounded and took their slow toll.

[goldbux]

Sad news. I enjoyed her writing immensely.

[OddLane]

As did I.

It was a completely different magazine when she wrote for NR and it was edited by John O'Sullivan.

I miss it.

[Ditto]

Ditto the RIP’s. I enjoyed, if not always not agreeing with her essays. But she was thought provoking which I suspect was her objective.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

Thanks for posting that. I had been wondering recently whatever happened to her. I always read her column in National Review and read her books, too. May she rest in peace, and may she have found her Savior.

[goldbux]

I subscribed to it from about 1993 through 2004. Read it eagerly from cover to cover. Dropped the subscription when they moved most of the articles online. Different publication & different world entirely now.

I visited their shiny new (at the time) HQ at 215 Lexington in January 1997. Met Linda Bridges & spoke with her for at least an hour. WFB was out of town that week.

If 19 years can slip by so quickly, surely we can make it through at least one more.

I miss the real America that seems gone forever.

[Chickensoup]

Sorry to hear that, last of the NR old guard.

[Martin Tell]

Memory Eternal. Her prose always made me laugh.

[AndyJackson]

and it was edited by John O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan pre-edited it. Buckley edited it.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

RIP.

[MV=PY]

RIP

I used to read NR back when it was good. Her columns were always brilliant!

[A_perfect_lady]

I’m much more affected by this than I expected to be: I started reading her at 20, and for a while I had every book she wrote. She influenced me profoundly. She was like a literary fairy godmother who sent me on quests with her writing. I rank her with Jane Austen in terms of “people I’ve spent the most time reading.”

[Kaneman]

Very sad news.
A pure delight to read.
They don’t make them like Florence King anymore.
R.I.P.

[A_perfect_lady]

This thread has the link to the National Review story on her passing.

[meowmeow]

Thanks!