Myrne ’70 and Jon ’61 Roe claim to have “unfocused careers.” Yet the two writers are sharing a rare achievement: Even in “retirement,” they each have a book out.
Jon’s Flight from Dallas: New Evidence of CIA Involvement in the Murder of President John F. Kennedy, is, he says, the result of a sustained interest in the Kennedy assassination, years of research and “good timing.”
When James Johnston approached him with the idea of co-authoring the book, Jon says the timing was right. He had retired from The Wichita Eagle as public journalism editor and was eager for a project. He says, “We’re pretty sure we’ve got the right thrust and the right bad guys.”
But he emphasizes that the story he chronicles in Flight is only one piece of a much larger puzzle.
Myrne’s book is a collection of poetry. The poems in Ironing Out the Wrinkles range in topic from growing up to marriage to dying. She began writing poetry after she retired in 1997, also from The Eagle, as a member of the editorial board.
Myrne says that “poetry came more naturally for me” than the journalistic writing on which she had built her career. She views her current writing as a key outlet for her humor. As she writes in Ironing, “The best send off would be laughter.”
The Roes: retired journalists, yes. Retired writers, never.
