Essence of Vickie

A Tribute to Vickie Ferguson: Writer, Friend and RMC-SCBWI member

by Anna-Maria Crum

“Vickie was a verbal person”--so opened the eulogy by her pastor. For those of us who knew her, truer words were never spoken. Her soft southern drawl and quiet tone of voice wrapped around you and drew you into her joy of life. Vickie was a verbal person in her interest in her family, her friends, her church, her love of books, and of course her stories. Through years of battling cancer she stayed focused on her writing. She was always there with a helping hand and advice for other writers. Even though she was too ill to attend the SCBWI 2004 Fall Conference Sunday workshop in Golden, she still critiqued everyone’s manuscript. Her spirit of giving was unending.

I had the pleasure of knowing Vickie for nearly 20 years. She got me involved with RMC-SCBWI and we served together on the board. In recent years we shared the same critique group. She had a magical way of creating a setting and bringing her characters to full-blooded life. While Vickie sold numerous short stories and articles, she never sold a novel. What I will always remember about her is that she never gave up trying. In the last phone conversation I had with her, Vickie lamented not getting much work done. She was trying to figure out a way to get back on the computer, back to her writing. She died two months later on May 20, 2005. Let her legacy to all of us be the courage to never give up.