This Goodly Land

Lucile Watkins Ellison (1907?–December 20, 1979)

Other Names Used

• Lucile Watkins: birth name

Alabama Connections

• Pennington, Choctaw County: birthplace, childhood residence

Selected Works

• Ellison, Lucile Watkins. Butter on Both Sides. Illus. Judith Gwyn Brown. New York: Scribner, 1979. For younger readers.
• Ellison, Lucile Watkins. The Tie that Binds. Illus. Judith Gwyn Brown. New York: Scribner, 1981. For younger readers.
• Ellison, Lucile Watkins. A Window to Look Through. Illus. Judith Gwyn Brown. New York: Scribner, 1982. For younger readers.

Biographical Information

Lucile Watkins Ellison was born and raised in Pennington, Ala. She earned a baccalaureate degree from Mississippi State College for Women (now Mississippi University for Women). After graduation, Ellison worked in Meridian, Miss., as a teacher and a reporter. After her marriage, she and her husband moved to Washington, D.C. Ellison worked on the staff of the National Education Association in Washington from 1937 to 1970. In the early 1970s, Ellison was diagnosed with cancer and began writing what she called “the Lucy stories,” whose characters were based on the members of her own family. Her first book, Butter on Both Sides, was published in 1979, shortly before her death. Two more books were published posthumously.

Interests and Themes

Lucile Watkins Ellison's stories for children are based on her life in rural Alabama early in the twentieth century.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• "Ellison, Lucile Watkins 1907(?)-1979"; Something About the Author. Vol. 50. Detroit: Gale Research Company, . 82-83.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.