Russell Baker’s House

Our local celebrity, he lived in this house for many years until his death a year or two ago. His books about growing up in Loudoun County during the Depression are beautifully written and very funny. Later he worked as a New York Times columnist and hosted Masterpiece Theater.

When I led our book club about 15 years ago, I worked hard on a letter to Mr. Baker (who was known to be a bit reclusive) and invited him to come speak. That was a wonderful meeting. And my father-in-law Harry, himself an old newspaper man who’d worked in New York, met him shortly before he died. They had much to talk about.

Took a night-time walk around Leesburg's center of town. Very few folks about and very few shops open; just leaves blowing about the brick sidewalks and the moon waxing toward Halloween.