Nebraska Town With One Resident Has A Library With 5,000 Books

[matcom]

<snip>

MONOWI, Neb. — Weeds twine around the disintegrating remnants of the water tower and sprout in a tangle through the floorboards of the grandest house in town. The Methodist church, gray with rot, slumps toward the frozen ground. An empty mailbox flaps open on a gravel rut that was once a road.

The people of Monowi have died or moved — all but one: Elsie Eiler. Brisk and unsentimental at 71, she lives in the one home still fit for living in, a snug trailer with worn white siding. She runs the one business left in Monowi, a dark, wood-paneled tavern, thick with smoke.

She also runs the library.

The sign outside is painted on a section of a refrigerator door. The floor is bare plywood. There's no heat. But there are thousands upon thousands of books. "The Complete Works of Shakespeare." "Treasure Island." Trixie Belden and "The Happy Valley Mystery." Zane Grey's westerns, every one of them, lined up across two shelves. Homer. Tennyson. Amy Tan. Goethe.

Elsie's late husband, Rudy, read them endlessly. He farmed and tended bar, he ran a grain elevator, he delivered gas to filling stations, and when the town was down to just him and Elsie, he served as mayor too. But he always found time to read — science fiction, history, the classics — anything but a Harlequin romance.

When he got sick with cancer two years ago, Rudy confided a dream to Elsie: He wanted to turn his collection into a public library.

Rudy ordered a custom-made building and set it a few steps from his home and his tavern. The Eilers' son, Jack, wired the lights, and friends built floor-to-ceiling shelves. But Rudy died in January 2004, before he could fill them.

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-na-library11feb11.story

[LynneSin]

1. So that's where all those bulk order Coulter, Hannity & O'Lielly books...

...are sent to!

[Hobarticus]

2. This will get spun into a "government waste" story, just watch

Never mind that it's from a private collection, some pundit will spin it into government spending gone amok.

Too bad, because it's actually a pretty cool story.

[WI_DEM]

3. That's wonderful and I hope residents in the tiny communities

around them do come and use it. If she wants some books I can send some her way.

[underpants]

4. Burgess Meredith? The Twilight Zone?

Sounds familiar.