Blanche Seale Hunt facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Blanche Seale Hunt
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|---|---|
| Born | March 18, 1912 Fort Myers, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | April 7, 1973 (aged 61) Wellston, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, teacher, postmaster |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1935–1964 (as a writer) |
| Genre | children's |
| Notable works |
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| Spouse |
Eugene A. Hunt
(m. 1937; died 1981) |
| Children | one son |
Blanche Seale Hunt (1912–1973) was a famous American writer. She created the popular Little Brown Koko series of children's stories. These stories first appeared every month in HOUSEHOLD Magazine for over ten years. The Little Brown Koko books sold more than 600,000 copies, making them very successful.
Contents
Early Life and Teaching Career
Blanche Seale Hunt was born in 1912 in Fort Myers, Florida. Her parents were Rufus and Pearl Dryman Seale. She had a younger brother named Daniel. Her family later moved to Lincoln County in central Oklahoma.
Blanche Hunt started teaching in 1934. She taught for thirteen years in different schools in Lincoln County, including Fallis, Mt. Vernon, and Wellston.
In 1937, Blanche married Eugene A. Hunt, who was also a teacher. Eugene Hunt loved gardening and grew many types of iris flowers. People would visit their home, called Koko Knoll, to buy flowers and meet Blanche, the author of the Little Brown Koko stories. Their home even had a special "Little Brown Koko" room. It featured a large painting of the character by artist Sybil Short Fudge.
Serving as Postmaster
In 1948, Blanche Hunt was chosen to be the Postmaster for the Fallis Post Office in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. She worked there for 21 years until she retired in 1969. She also served as the president of the Oklahoma League of Postmasters for a time.
How the Stories Began
Blanche Hunt's writing career started when one of her second-grade students, Jacqueline Joy Stone, needed a story for a speech contest. Hunt asked her friend, writer Beulah Rhodes Overman, to write one. But Overman said she didn't write for children and suggested Hunt write it herself.
Hunt later remembered that writing the story was easy because she was writing it just for this little girl who loved stories. This first story was about Little Brown Koko, and the student won the speech contest!
Overman then told Hunt to send the story to HOUSEHOLD, a popular monthly magazine. The magazine's publisher was Arthur Capper, and it had over 1.5 million readers. The magazine accepted the story and paid Hunt $20. A new Little Brown Koko story appeared in the magazine every month for more than twelve years. Hunt's payment for each story eventually increased to $75.
About Little Brown Koko
The main characters in the Little Brown Koko stories were Little Brown Koko, a six-year-old boy; his mother, "Mammy"; and his pets, Shoog the dog and Inky-Poo the black cat. Each short story was complete on its own. They usually showed Little Brown Koko getting into or out of a funny or tricky situation.
From 1935, HOUSEHOLD magazine published 197 Little Brown Koko stories. Dorothy M. Wagstaff, an artist from Topeka, Kansas, drew the pictures for all these stories in the magazine.
The stories became very popular across the country. Because so many children, parents, and teachers wrote letters asking for more, HOUSEHOLD magazine decided to publish some of the stories as books in 1940. The magazine also created Little Brown Koko coloring books, a special bank, and patterns for clothes and other items. The stories were even read aloud in libraries and on radio shows. The first two books sold 500,000 copies! Hunt earned 1.25 cents for each of these first two books sold.
In the early 1950s, a new editor at HOUSEHOLD magazine changed its focus to adult women. Because of this, the Little Brown Koko stories were stopped.
Hunt then contacted C.E.I Publishing Company about publishing more Little Brown Koko books. However, the NAACP asked for changes to the stories. They wanted words like "black" changed to "brown," and "kinky" hair changed to "curly." They also wanted "Mammy" changed to "Mommy" and asked for the illustrations to no longer show characters with exaggerated features.
Hunt chose Sybil Fudge and Jody Hawkins to draw the pictures for the updated stories. In 1959, Little Brown Koko at Work and Play and Little Brown Koko’s Pets and Playmates were published.
In 1964, Hunt published two more books: Little Brown Koko Bible Stories from the Old Testaments. These books had illustrations by Bradley Whitfield. However, these new illustrations again showed black characters with exaggerated features. The Biblical figures in these books looked Caucasian and did not have these distorted features.
Understanding the Stories in Their Time
During the 1940s and 1950s, when Little Brown Koko was most popular, it was rare to find children's books with positive and realistic pictures and stories about African American children and families. Today, experts in children's literature understand that Little Brown Koko stories, like many others from that time, sometimes used stereotypes. These stories were often created to entertain white audiences. Even so, many families still loved and kept these books.
Protests in Waterloo, Iowa
In 1972, a Little Brown Koko story called “Little Brown Koko and the Preacher’s Watermelon” caused protests in Waterloo, Iowa. A teacher named Alice Margaret Hayes read this story aloud in her junior high speech class, something she had done for over ten years. The school had 1,200 students, including 45 African American students.
One of Hayes’ students complained to school officials that the story was not appropriate. On May 24, twenty-five African American parents, students, and community members held a sit-in in Hayes’ classroom. They said reading the story was "demeaning" and "racist" and demanded the teacher be removed. The principal agreed the story was inappropriate and suspended the teacher.
The next day, white students protested the suspension and refused to go to classes. Later that day, African American parents and students went to the school administration building. They blocked the superintendent in his office until police helped him. Thirty-two protesters were arrested. On May 26, the School Board decided to end the teacher's suspension. However, Hayes chose not to return to teach for the rest of the school year.
Death
Blanche Seale Hunt passed away on Saturday, April 7, 1973. Her funeral was held at the Wellston Church of Christ. She was buried at Carney Cemetery in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. She was survived by her husband, Eugene, and her son.
