Sketches of Yesterday and Today in Nevada County

Sketches of Yesterday and Today in Nevada County
by Marilyn Starkey and Juanita Kennedy Browne
Paperback, 92 pages
Nevada County Historical Society, January 1, 1988

This book is a sketchbook that features mixed media sketches of well-known and lesser-known scenes in Nevada County fleshed out by simple word sketches that tell a few familiar and unfamiliar facts and incidents related to those scenes. Historians often shoehorn in all the quibbling details of their subject. Sketchers don’t. This sketchbook is not intended to exhaust either the subject or the reader. I disagree with a few of the details on some of the historic plaques that mark some of these scenes, and some of the plaques disagree with each other. However, I don’t feel a sketchbook is the place to air possible historical errors. Besides, a few years here or there shouldn’t detract from the overall historic significance of a spot, and I’m sure a slight mistake in a date will not cause the general reader many sleepless nights. Still, I have tried to keep the historical data as concise and correct as possible. What was here yesterday is not here today, and yet it is. What is here today may well be gone tomorrow, and yet it stays. These sketches are an attempt to capture the ephemeral nature of a living, vibrant, changing, growing community and blend yesterday with today and preserve the essence for tomorrow.

About the Artist
MARILYN STARKEY lives in a rustic log home near Nevada City with her husband, Bob, children, Eric and Mia, four cats, one golden retriever, and a lively green parrot. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in Elementary Education, Marilyn traveled to Europe and moved to Hermosa Beach to teach kindergarten. She returned to school to study painting and ceramics, traveled in the Greek Islands and the Hawaiian Islands, sold her art work at Berkeley’s Arts Co-op and the Oakland Museum Store, became a fourth grade teacher’s aide and, most recently, studied real estate. She and her husband own and operate Nevada City Real Estate in the historic New York Hotel. Among her favorite books is How to Raise Children at Home in Your Spare Time. In 1983 Marilyn won “Best Nevada County Scene and first place in mixed media at the Nevada County Fair. Her artwork was chosen for the catalog cover for the 1987 Sierra Visuals show. She says she gets her artistic abilities from her mother, Mabel Austin, a talented painter who lives in nearby Penn Valley.

About the Author
JUANITA KENNEDY BROWNE was born in Oklahoma and moved to California with her parents shortly after World War II. She worked as a technical editor for Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach and later for Aerojet-General in Sacramento. In 1962 she had a career change. While raising a second family, she continued her education, received a Master of Arts degree in English with a history minor from California State University, Sacramento, and began freelance writing. Hundreds of her articles have been published in local, regional, and national newspapers and magazines. In 1973 Juanita and her husband, Pete, and their two youngest sons, Juan and Dana, moved to their Christmas tree ranch in The Hollow near Grass Valley. Since 1979 Juanita has written a monthly column for the Grass Valley Union on events 100 years ago in Nevada County. Her first book, Nuggets of Nevada County History, was published by the Nevada County Historical Society in 1983 and is now in its third printing. In 1987 the Society published her second book, A Tale of Two Cities and a Train: History of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, 1874-1942. For her contributions in the interpretation and preservation of Nevada County history through her books, articles, and presentations, Juanita received an award from the Nevada County Historical Society in 1985, a Certificate of Commendation from The American Association for State and Local History in 1986, and Awards of Merit from the California Historical Society and the Conference of California Historical Societies in 1988.