Illinois Authors

The Illinois Center for the Book banner

Margery Frisbie

Born: June 2, 1923 in Geneva, Illinois
Died: August 8, 2021 in Arlington Heights, Illinois

Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Frisbie was born in Geneva, and lived in Arlington Heights until her passing.

Biography: Margery Frisbie was a consulting editor, historian, poet and author of several books. Born Margery Rowbottom, she graduated from Mundelein College in 1944 with a degree in Biology. After graduation, Margery worked as a chemist until 1948 when she became the Public Relations Director at Mundelein. While she held this position in 1949, Mundelein hired Elizabeth Bentley, a spy for the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. Called in newspapers the “Red Spy Queen,” Bentley had recently defected and converted to Catholicism. When Bishop Fulton J. Sheen sent word to Catholic schools requesting a job for Bentley, Mundelein offered her a teaching position. As Public Relations Director, Frisbie held a press conference at Mundelein in response to media interest in the school’s new teacher. Here, she met a reporter for the Chicago Daily News named Richard Frisbie. The two were engaged four months later and married in June of 1950. The couple have eight children. Margery, while raising her children, also worked as a columnist for The New World and as a children’s book review editor for the National Catholic Reporter. Her interest in writing manifested in other ventures as well. She and her husband co-authored two works: The Do-It-Yourself Parent and The Cana Couplet, the newsletter for the Cana Conference. On her own, Margery wrote several works including histories of St. James Catholic Church, Arlington Heights Library, the First United Methodist Church, a collection of poetry about Arlington Heights, and most prominently, An Alley in Chicago: The Ministry of a Parish Priest, a history of life and work of Monsignor John J. Egan.


Awards:

Primary Literary Genre(s): Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Web: https://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/wla/pdfs/Frisbie,%20Margery.pdf


Selected Titles

An alley in Chicago :
ISBN: 158051121X OCLC: Franklin, Wis. :

Sheed & Ward, Franklin, Wis. : 2002.

An alley in Chicago :
ISBN: 1556124635 OCLC: Kansas City, MO :

Sheed & Ward, Kansas City, MO : ©1991.

Besides recounting the exemplary life of Monsignor John Joseph Egan, An Alley in Chicago briefs us on the firebrand priests and lay people who radiated the power and élan that made Catholics across the country look to the heartland, to Chicago's Catholic moment. They sought leadership in marriage education, in neighborhood empowerment, in urban ministries, in ecuminism, in race relations, in community organizing, from these indefatigable Chicago leaders--and they got it.

  Old-timers' reunion :
ISBN: 0965808505 OCLC: Chicago, Ill. :

Frisbie Communications, Chicago, Ill. : ©1997.

The do-it-yourself parent /
ISBN: 0971365105 OCLC: Okmulgee, OK :

Performance Power Press, Okmulgee, OK : ©1991.

This bookish inclination :
ISBN: 0961783001 OCLC: Arlington Heights, Ill. :

Friends of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, Arlington Heights, Ill. : ©1987.

 

 

Accessibility