Anita Buck (1925-2017)

 

Anita Buck was born in St. Paul, graduated from Wilson High School, and majored in art at Hamline University with a minor in English. After college, she answered a newspaper ad for a job with the Army Special Services in Seoul, South Korea. She arrived there in 1949 as the director of recreational activities, serving nearly 1,800 military personnel stationed there.

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After her service, she arrived back in St. Paul and landed a job with WSHB, a radio station in Stillwater. She did all sorts of work at the station including bookwork, typing copy, and some on-air work. Her first program on air was “Women’s Bulletin Board,” and when Roger Erickson, “Uncle Eric” left to join the army, Anita took over the story time program as “Auntie Anita.”

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In 1954, she married Gene Buck, a 1943 Stillwater High School Graduate, and a WWII and Korean War veteran.

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Anita started writing a column for “The Gazette” and when the family page editor, Ruth Beach, retired, the Gazette editor asked her to step in and she accepted. She worked full-time for seven years and in 1976, she started her weekly column “50 years” which she wrote about news 50 years earlier.  Her love of history ran deep.  She was associated with the Washington County Historical Society for more than 50 years.

 

When she moved to Stillwater, her property owner was Minnesota artist Jo Lutz Rollins, the operator of the Stillwater Art Colony.  Anita loved to paint, especially watercolors.  She talked with and learned from Rollins and later Buck wrote a book about Rollins and the Stillwater Art Colony.

 

Anita passed away on October 29, 2017.