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‘Do You Remember Barbara’ available on eBooks

Celebrates Past Times writer Barb Scafferi

CONTRIBUTED GRAPHIC The “Do You Remember Barbara” An Anthology edited by Deborah Rohne is available via Amazon eBooks. The project is two volumes of the late Barbara Scafferi’s Past Times columns from 1997-2005 and 2006-2014.

Deborah Ann Scafferi Rohne used to help her mother, Barbara Scafferi, prepare her monthly “Do You Remember” Past Times columns.

Rohne helped her mother compile and edit the columns; then send them and many photos digitally to the Times-Republican.

The help was especially needed when Barb’s health began to fail, and she had to move from Marshalltown to live with Deborah and family.

Rohne helped Barb prepare her final column shortly before she died Nov. 2, 2014, at age 78 in Rohne’s Northwood home.

Regardless of failing health, Scafferi never missed T-R deadlines.

Scafferi

Now, after several months of work, Rohne has revived her mother’s beloved columns.

“The finished project was so large, I had to break it up into 2 volumes – since it exceeded the upload limits for Kindle Creator,” she said

• Volume 1 consists of years 1997-2005 and is 448 pages.

• Volume 2 spans 2006-2014 and has 372 pages.

Each volume sells for $9.99 plus tax and is only available electronically, Rohne said.

“Those interested would be able to view it on a tablet, laptop or desktop screen once they purchase it,” she said.

From 1997 to 2014, Central Iowans invited Scafferi into their homes.

Her monthly Past Times column was the key.

Central Iowa history came alive through those columns and through hundreds of kitchen table chats.

Readers learned of Scafferi growing up in the rural farming community of La Moille, her 4-H adventures in the La Moille Lucky Workers and later her travels overseas.

Every column generated numerous letters and telephone calls to Scafferi.

Frequently readers would contact T-R staff and request help in forwarding questions or information to the historian.

Scafferi incorporated many questions and comments into her columns.

While she enjoyed traveling across the United States with her parents and siblings, as well as trips to England and Brazil, she spent all her life in the La Moille-Marshalltown area. The only exception was a brief period when she lived and worked in Washington, D.C.

Scafferi was a graduate of Marshalltown Community College and later attended Iowa State

University, where she studied communications and journalism.

Rohne said she began promoting her late mother’s column’s on Facebook Monday.

“January 27 was mom’s birthday,” Rohne said. “She would have been 84.”

For more information, contact Rohne at digitalpizza@hotmail.com, or visit her Facebook page.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 641-753-6611 or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com

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