Beverly Cleary, the beloved children’s book author of the “Ramona” series and “The Mouse and the Motorcycle,” has died. She was 104.
Yes, 104. Cleary’s first book, “Henry Huggins,” was published more than 70 years ago, way back in 1950.
Cleary died Thursday in Carmel, California, where she’d lived since the 1960s, according to her publisher HarperCollins. Cleary was born Beverly Bunn on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon.
Cleary spent her early years on the family farm in Yamhill, Oregon. There, her mom set up a library for the town. Young Beverly’s love of books was born in that lodge room above a bank.