Mimi Mathers Meredith ‘83 has penned a new book, Blooming Where You’re Planted: Essays on life balance, leadership, and finding goodness wherever you are. Meredith was co-author on two previous books, Empowering Employees with Kenneth L. Murrell, and Building a Full-Service School: A Step-by-Step Guide with Carol Calfee and Frank Wittwer.

Meredith is a business consultant and professional speaker who works from her home in Phoenix, Arizona. She was asked if she had learned any lessons at Cottey that helped her “bloom where she was planted.” Meredith answered, “I’d say absolutely, and they are gifts I use every day. I attribute much of my appreciation for diverse perspectives and personality styles, and my blend of leadership skills to Cottey. Cottey is part of some of my favorite and most poignant memories. It is in the songs I have sung to my children through the years and it was absolutely in this book as I looked to my Cottey friends--particularly Susan Reyburn ‘84, who is herself an accomplished author--for direction. And when Denise Williams ‘83 heard the book was out, she became a one-woman public relations machine. The support and celebration with my Cottey friends that followed via e-mail were second to none. It could only have been better if we were celebrating in the Chellie Club together! So yes, Cottey lent many lessons that have helped me grow and bloom, and that are part of this book.”

From life balance and time-management to communication and leadership, Blooming Where You’re Planted will remind you why life is good and how we are all equipped to help that goodness grow. The authentic, and often humorous, voice with which Mimi Meredith addresses her subjects resonates with a broad range of readers from college students to corporate executives. One reader said, “reading this is like having a cup of tea or glass of wine with a good friend. Mimi’s creativity, compassion and encouragement makes my day!”

The late Jetta Carleton Lyon ‘33 has had her only novel The Moonflower Vine reissued. The book, originally released in December 1962, spent four months on the New York Times Best Sellers list along with works by J.D. Salinger and John Updike. Harper Perennial, a division
of HarperCollins Publishers, has reissued The Moonflower Vine as part of its “Rediscovered Classics” series. The book is published under the author’s maiden name, Jetta Carleton.

The novel is about Callie and Matthew Soames who settle on a farm in western Missouri in the early 1900s and raise four headstrong daughters. A bit of Lyon’s life is reflected in the character of Mary Jo, who leaves the farm and moves to New York to work in television.

Lyon was a 50-year-old advertising writer working in New York when she published her novel. Originally from Holden, Missouri, she and her husband Jene Lyon, would return to Nevada, Missouri, every summer to visit her parents. Her father, P.A. Carleton, had served as the superintendent of the Nevada schools.

After Cottey, Lyon attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, studying English literature. In 1936, she was named Mizzou’s Poet of the Year. She earned a master’s degree in English and briefly taught that subject at Joplin Junior College before moving to Kansas City, and later east where she and her husband settled in Hoboken, New Jersey. They later relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and ran a small publishing company.

An initial first printing of 18,500 copies was completed. The book is selling well enough, however, to send The Moonflower Vine back for a second printing.To read a wonderful review of the novel and a biography of Lyon featured in The Pitch, a Kansas City paper, use this Internet link: http://www.pitch.com/2009-06-04/culture/summer-reading-moonflower-resurrection/