Beverly Cleary, American author of children’s stories, tales and adventures died on Thursday at the age of 104. She was in Carmel, California. 

The creator of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, Beezus, and other residents of Klickitat Street, authored compelling stories revolving around everyday problems faced by children. She had millions of young fans. 

The announcement of Cleary’s death was made by her publisher Harper Collins. 

Born in 1916 on April 12, Beverly spent her childhood on her family farm in Yamhill. Her family moved to Portland when she was 6 after her father lost their land and later found a job as a security guard in a bank. 

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After attending Chaffey Junior College in Ontario, she got into the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated in 1938 and earned a librarianship degree a year later from the University of Washington’s school of librarianship. She then worked as a librarian in Yakima, Wash. 

She married Clarence Cleary who she had met in UC, Berkeley and moved to San Francisco. Clarence served in the army sold children’s books at the Sather Gate Book Shop in Berkeley and worked as a librarian at Camp John T. Knight in Oakland, reported The New York Times.

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Her first book “Henry Huggins” was published in 1950. Beverly was famous for writing compelling and realistic stories about children and the typical middle-class American childhood.  

In an article dated back in 1982 for “The Horn Book”, Cleary wrote, “I wanted to read funny stories about the sort of children I knew and I decided that someday when I grew up I would write them.”

Clearly wrote about and described her childhood in her memoirs. The first volume called “A Girl From Yamhill” was published in 1988. “My Own Two Feet,” the second volume was published in 1995. 

The most popular character she authored was Ramona Quimby. Ramona was introduced as a supporting character. She was Henry’s friend Beatrice’s bratty younger sister. Eventually, Cleary wrote multiple stories with Ramona as the protagonist and was liked by many. The first book was called Ramona the Pest and was published in 1968.