{"id":1143,"date":"2010-06-04T16:19:42","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T22:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2013-07-15T11:27:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T17:27:23","slug":"book-honors-local-writer-and-uccs-alum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=1143","title":{"rendered":"Book honors local writer and alum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A new book published by the university, \u201cGifts from the Heart \u2013 Stories, Memories, and Chronicles of Lucille Gonzales Oller,\u201d provides a peek into the history of Colorado Springs and challenges faced by women and minorities.<\/p>\n

Alex Blackburn, professor emeritus, English, in cooperation with the CU Foundation and the Colorado Springs Gazette,<\/em> produced the book, drawing from unpublished Gonzales Oller works as well as more than 700 columns she wrote for The Gazette<\/em> between 1995 and 2002.<\/p>\n

The book is available at the UCCS Bookstore and The Gazette<\/em> offices, 30 S. Prospect for $20. Proceeds will benefit the Lou Gonzales Scholarship which is awarded to women more than 25 years old who plan to pursue degrees in journalism-related fields, according to Jaime McMullen-Garcia, associate director of development, CU Foundation. McMullen-Garcia served as the book\u2019s project manager and said more than 40 copies have been sold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an amazing book,\u201d McMullen-Garcia said. \u201cMy mom and I have both read it and found it fascinating. It provides insight into a remarkable woman and the struggles for equality faced by many in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales Oller was raised in Colorado Springs, attended Helen Hunt Elementary and Palmer High School. In her columns, she wrote about personal experiences when the city was \u201cabout six square miles,\u201d that included roasting chiles and choosing her favorite Mousekeeter\u2019s name for her confirmation name in the Catholic Church. Her columns were personal, insightful and introspective and often advocated for neighborhoods and for causes such as the restoration of Lowell School south of downtown.<\/p>\n

At age 40, Gonzales Oller began her college career at UCCS with great trepidation. By that time, she had experienced life from a variety of perspectives including military spouse, civil service employee and parent. Those experiences, with the help of a mentor like Alex Blackburn, soon came to life in her writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe showed up in my creative writing class in 1989,\u201d recalled Alex Blackburn. \u201cShe was incredibly gifted. The very first story she submitted, I suggested she send it to the Colorado Springs Gazette<\/em> for a story competition. Not surprisingly, she won it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving from UCCS to the Gazette, first as a newsroom clerk and later in the coveted position of columnist, Gonzales Oller became one of the city\u2019s best-read and most-loved voices as she wrote about the city\u2019s neighborhoods, its underreported issues, and its underdogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the local scene, she became the conscience to a whole city,\u201d Blackburn said.<\/p>\n

In 2003, at age 56, her life was ended by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often called Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease. In her honor, family members and friends established the scholarship that bears her name to provide opportunity for other women to pursue passions for writing and journalism.<\/p>\n

– Jeremy Simon, CU Foundation, and Tom Hutton, University Advancement<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new book published by the university, \u201cGifts from the Heart \u2013 Stories, Memories, and Chronicles of Lucille Gonzales Oller,\u201d provides a peek into the history of Colorado Springs and challenges faced by women and (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/loug-book-300x300.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-ir","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}