What happens when world events interrupt scholastic achievement? Severe disruptions such as COVID-19 are rare, but not unprecedented. An American boy named Felix Sparks, born Aug. 2, 1917, was a superb sportsman and student at his Miami, Arizona, high school when the Great Depression hit. His copper mining town got crushed. There were no jobs. […]
World War II
Posted inOpinion, Write On, Colorado
Coronavirus stole traditions and passages. But we can let love — and the moon — connect us.
Today, I mailed a package to my daughter. She will soon be celebrating her first birthday since moving to New York City and she’ll spend it in isolation in her apartment. I also drove across town and dropped off a present for a friend who turned 79 today. I put the gift bag on the […]
Posted inBook Excerpts, SunLit
The story of a dismal chapter in U.S. history didn’t end with internment camps
Denny Dressman is a former award-winning reporter, editor and senior executive who concluded a 42-year newspaper career in 2007 when he retired from The Rocky Mountain News after 25 years there. A member of the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame and a past president of both the Colorado Press Association and the Colorado Authors’ […]
Posted inSunLit, SunLit Interviews
The internment camp story has been told — but these Colorado authors examined what happened after
Denny Dressman is a former award-winning reporter, editor and senior executive who concluded a 42-year newspaper career in 2007 when he retired from the Rocky Mountain News after 25 years there. A member of the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame and a past president of both the Colorado Press Association and the Colorado Authors’ […]
Posted inBook Excerpts, SunLit
How women took to the skies to become little-known heroes of the U.S. effort in World War II
Sarah Byrn Rickman is the author of nine books about the WASP — the women pilots who ferried Army aircraft in WWII. Number Ten is due out in 2020. Sarah has twice received the Combs Gates Award from the National Aviation Hall of Fame. The Combs Gates Award is given annually for “creative projects that […]
Posted inSunLit, SunLit Interviews
Earning the trust of a heroic woman World War II pilot proved challenging for a Colorado author
Sarah Byrn Rickman is the author of nine books about the WASP — the women pilots who ferried Army aircraft in WWII. Number Ten is due out in 2020. Sarah has twice received the Combs Gates Award from the National Aviation Hall of Fame. The Combs Gates Award is given annually for “creative projects that […]
Posted inArts, Culture, Opinion, Opinion Columns
The greatest classic Christmas movies ever, according to film critic Howie Movshovitz
Christmas must have held special resonance during World War II. You can hear it in the yearnings of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” cherished by soldiers away from home, and in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine in 1944. World War II was different from our long-running wars in […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
“It’s been awhile”: A Colorado congressman jumped out of a plane to commemorate D-Day
It has been nearly 15 years since U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger and member of the 82nd Airborne Division, parachuted in service to his country. “It’s been awhile,” he said in an interview Friday. But the Aurora Democrat took to the skies again Sunday in France when he leaped from a plane […]
Posted inColoradans, Culture, News
D-Day’s heroes may be disappearing, but their stories have proved indelible
Even in 1994, as the 50th anniversary of D-Day approached, it had started to dawn on America that the soldiers who helped save the world, the ordinary people who rose to extraordinary circumstances and lived to tell the tale, would not be with us forever. Most had advanced into their 70s, though many of their […]
Posted inSunLit, SunLit Interviews
Inspired by the real-life Soviet female fliers of WWII, a Colorado author rose to great heights in researching her novel
Aimie K. Runyan celebrates history’s unsung heroines in four historical novels, including the internationally bestselling “Daughters of the Night Sky” and “Promised to the Crown.” She is active as an educator and speaker in the writing community and beyond. The following is an interview with Runyan. Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & […]