Milwaukie author publishes her first novel at age 88

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Oct 4, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

Ethel Pulos Leon worked in the Swan Island shipyards during World War II, for the Bank of America in LA and owned The Beverly Hills hair salon, in Milwaukie for 35 years.

Now the 88-year-old Milwaukie resident can add another job title to her resume – published author.

Leon’s book, “The Gold Locket,” was just published by Inkwater Press, and when she saw the first copy come out of the box, Leon said, “I felt like I’ve done something.”

The book is about a Greek-American family and is primarily set in Portland in 1955, but flashes back to early local history in 1926 and even back to the 19th century.

Characters in the story also take a trip to Greece, the country where Leon’s own parents were born.

Leon doesn’t want to give away the plot details, but she did note that the book is the story of Althea, a young, adopted girl who is trying to piece together the story of her heritage and is partly a murder mystery.

A gold locket figures into the story and appears on the cover of the book, because the locket belonged to Jenny, Althea’s real mother, Leon said.

Inkwater Press publishes book

Michelle Madison, the publicity and marketing manager for Inkwater Press, said she found “The Gold Locket” and Leon’s own story to be “fascinating.”

“Here you have a woman in her late 80s publishing her first novel, and it details some of Portland’s darker history,” she said.

“It combines elements like a strong female protagonist, murder mystery, immigrant history and even the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Portland. A lot of people don’t even know that the Klan was in Portland,” Madison added.

Leon was born in Portland in 1920, the youngest of six children born to Greek immigrant parents. In 1970, she visited relatives in Athens, Delphi and Rhodes and was thus inspired to set part of her story in Greece.

She said she had always wanted to write, but was too busy working, so when she retired in 1995, at the age of 75, she enrolled in writing and computer classes at Clackamas Community College, and also took a creative writing class at the Milwaukie Center.

“I made a lot of notes about the characters; about each person and what they should be like. Then I’d start writing, and the characters would fit perfectly [into the story].

“I [also] wrote Jenny’s journal so I could use excerpts,” Leon explained.

1 | 2 Next Page >>