Whistle Stop Poems and the Poet of Saukville

This past spring, Saukville Library Director, Jen Gerber, and friends of the Oscar Grady Library, came together to republish a long-lost book by one of its residents, Bill Harrington, who was dubbed "The Poet of Saukville" by the Ozaukee Press, upon Harrington's death on April 1st, 1949.  

The book, entitled Whistle Stop Poems, was written under the name Harrington Williams, and published in 1947 by the Ozaukee Press, where Harrington worked as a Sports Editor, just two years before Harrington died of a sickness he acquired while serving in the Navy in 1921.  

On Saturday, September 24th, at 2:30, the Oscar Grady Public Library invites the public to a poetry reading from Whistle Stop Poems at the Ozaukee County Pioneer Village in Saukville.

Attendees are encouraged to listen to poems, or even to grab the mic and read one themselves.  Light refreshments will be provided. Copies of the book will be available for purchase for $10, with proceeds of the book sale to benefit Saukville’s Oscar Grady Public Library programming.

Born in Milwaukee in 1903, Harrington was the son or Mr. and Mrs. Peter Harrington of Saukville.  He attended Marquette University, but quit his studies to join the U.S. Navy in 1921, where he served in the South West Pacific.  It was while he was doing rescue work during the great Japanese earthquake of 1923 that he was stricken with apoplexy, and was discharged from the service in 1925.  After a long period of hospitalization in Veteran's hospitals, he returned to Saukville and began a career as a sports writer for the Ozaukee Press.

Pioneer Village is located at 4880 County Rd I in Saukville.  For more information, visit http://www.oscargradylibrary.org.