Obituaries

Joseph Nathan Kane, author of the Famous First Facts series found in libraries nationwide, died September 22 in West Palm Beach, FL. He was 103.

Kane's lifelong obsession with facts led him to write extensive reference books that chronicled trivia such as when the Eskimo Pie was created (1922), and the nicknames of all the American presidents. Among his books are Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings,Discoveries, and In ventions in the United States, first published in 1933, followed by More First Facts in 1935, and 1,000 Facts Worth Knowing in 1938. What Dog Is That? published in 1944, is an exhaustive summary of the characteristics of 122 purebreds recognized by the American Kennel Club.

Children's author and illustrator Glen Rounds, whose first book, Ol' Paul, the Mighty Logger (Holiday), was published in 1936, died in Pinehurst, NC, September 27 after a long illness. He was 96.

Rounds, who was born in a sod house near Wall, SD, and moved to Montana one year later in a covered wagon, wrote dozens of tall tales and realistic books about rural America, especially North Carolina, where he lived, and Montana, where he was brought up.

Rounds claimed he worked for Ol' Paul's protagonist, Paul Bunyan, but years later he admitted the stories were made up.

Alice Lohrer, who spent close to six decades as a librarian and educator, died September 15 in Chicago. She was 95. Lohrer spent 23 years on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, serving under several deans, including Robert B. Downs. The university's graduate school of library and information science named an annual award after Lohrer. It is given to a student who shows outstanding promise in the field of literature and library services for youth.