About this event
Lauren Coodley began her career tutoring students for the GED and teaching night school psychology at the local junior college. She invented and taught classes ranging from women’s history to overcoming math anxiety to children’s literature. In l996, she received a second M.A. from Sonoma State University, this time in history. She also received two grants from the California Council for the Humanities and from the Lilly Library to further her research on Upton Sinclair.
Stephanie Grohs, a retired librarian and fellow author, will also be joining Lauren. They will discuss how they did their research, and what they learned about three mostly unknown residents of Upvalley: Juliana Pope Barnett, first Latina emigrant to Napa County, 1840’s; Nobujiro Nishizu, Japanese immigrant farmworker at Wheeler Ranch on Zinfandel Lane, 1904; Orphan boys from San Francisco cultivating silkworms at St Joseph’s Agricultural School in Rutherford, 1908. These stories are included in Lauren’s book, “Lost Napa Valley” (History Press). Lauren and Stephanie collaborated on the children’s book “Frankie’s Journey: the Silk Road to Napa.”
A Q&A will follow their talk.