Obituaries : Mildred Armstrong Kalish

Mildred Armstrong Kalish, 101, Author of Little Heathens

Mildred (Millie) Armstrong Kalish, the author of Little Heathens, passed away on May 24th, 2023, two months after her 101st birthday. Born on St Patrick's Day in 1922 in Garrison, IA, Millie was raised on a small family farm during the Great Depression. Her childhood experiences laid the foundation for her deep connection to the land and fostered a profound appreciation for self-sufficiency and community. These formative years inspired her acclaimed memoir, which documented the challenges and joys of a life deeply rooted in rural America.

As a child, Millie excelled in school and showed literary talents at an early age. For a local radio station's public safety jingle contest, she penned these memorable lines:

"The train is running down the track, Race it if you choose.

Remember this, be very sure, For if you tie, you lose."

She won so many jingle contests, she was eventually banned from entering again.

She graduated from Cedar Falls Teacher's College, but before she could get a job as a teacher, she was recruited to be a governess for the two young children of big band leader Little Jack Little. In 1942, she moved into a mansion in Yonkers, NY, and traded in farm overalls for sequined gowns and Manhattan nightlife, notably the namesake bar of Little Jack Little's friend Jack Dempsey. Within a year, however, she joined the war effort as a radioman in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve after completing training in sending and receiving Morse code at Miami University in Oxford, OH. She was stationed at Norfolk, VA where the women replaced land-based radio operators so the men could do sea duty. In April 2022, just after her 100th birthday, she was presented with a Living Legend Proclamation from the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation recognizing her service.

It was in Norfolk where she met Harry Kalish, a fellow radioman and after a short engagement, they were married on April 27, 1944. They remained married for 64 years until Harry's death in 2009.

After mustering out, they both attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City on the GI Bill. Millie earned her Master's in English and Harry his PhD in Psychology. Harry eventually became the first chairman of the Psychology Dept at the nascent State University of NY at Stony Brook. Millie taught American Literature and Advanced Expository Writing at Suffolk County Community College and won several teaching citations. Along the way, she raised two sons and hosted many memorable recruiting and holiday parties for the new Psych department

Throughout her life, Millie would retell stories of the farm and how they coped as a family and community through the Great Depression. When she and Harry moved to Independent Living, at The Forum, in Cupertino, California, in 2006 she finally had the time to put these memories on paper.

The result was 'Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm during the Great Depression', published in 2007 when she was 84. Her book received many accolades including a rave review from Elizabeth Gilbert on the front page of the Sunday New York Times Book Review and selection as one of the 10 Best Books of the Year from The New York Times.

She spent the next ten years touring Iowa and California promoting the book and the simplicity of farm life. To her unending amusement, she was awarded 'Best Emerging Author' in the 10th Annual Iowa Authors Awards in 2009, because the other categories required a corpus of work. Her home-spun style and grandmotherly demeanor made her a hit at book readings and clubs. To date, nearly 200,000 copies of the book have been sold.

In 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from her alma mater in Cedar Falls, now the University of Northern Iowa.

Millie was a wonderful amalgam of a simple, practical farm girl who chopped wood well into her 70s, and a sophisticated, culture-loving woman - she and Harry had season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera for two decades. She is survived by her sons Doug and Greg, their wives Donna and Carol Ann, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.