Ginny Machann, who contributed to this blog from 2004 until July 2023, died this past Friday. An obituary is here. The funeral will be tomorrow, Saturday, September 23 (the obituary has details).
Here is a link to Ginny’s Chicago Boyz posts.
Ginny was a lovely person. She delighted in the discussion of ideas and was a delightful person with whom to discuss ideas. She grew up in Nebraska and lived in the East-Central Texas melting pot. She was vastly well read, a PhD and English instructor who had — unusually for an academic person — run her own business and believed that she had learned much about life from doing so. She was curious and insightful about human nature and human possibilities. In recent years she was a valued participant in this blog’s regular Zoom meetups. I hope that she got as much out of our discussions as the rest of us did out of her participation.
I was fortunate to meet Ginny and her husband, Clint, in Austin a few years ago. It was, I think, a great time for all of us (Sgt. Mom and the late Shannon Love were there too). Ginny and Clint very sweetly gave me a gift of local kolachkes and wine. My heart goes out to Clint and to their daughters, Alena, Tessie and Sarah.
RIP, Ginny. עליך השלום — May you have peace.
RIP, Ginny.
Really saddened by this. Hard to believe we won’t be seeing Ginny’s post & comments anymore.
Yes.
RIP.
Wish I had met her – RIP
I only met her face to face that once, at the meet-up in Austin, and if it hadn’t been so noisy in the restaurant on Lamar, I think we all could have talked through the night; the company was so much fun.
It was nice of Ginny’s family to let us all know. There are too many times when someone we ‘know’ through blogging just … vanishes, and everyone is left to wonder. Maybe we hear through circuitous means that they have died – Tim “Timmer” Tracy who milblogged with me at the successor to Sgt. Styker, Gerald Vanderleun at American Digest, Oregon Muse who did the Sunday morning book post at Ace of Spades. “Greyhawk” at Mudville Gazette just plain old vanished.
I so enjoyed her posts and comments here and I am sad that I was never able to meet her.
Requiescat in pace.
I wish I could have met her in person.
I liked reading what she wrote. Will what she did disappear, or will another one arise to take up the torch she carried?
Any one of her three daughters could do so if so inclined, Ginny and Clint did a great work in their lives. Clint is Professor Emeritus in English from TAMU. My wife and I were privileged to have have had a weekly lunch with a small group of liberal arts professors for about 15 years. This group included Ginny and Clint. It was always a stimulating exchange of ideas, stories, and perspectives. Probably no chance of recovering this magic without Ginny.
Death6
Ginny’s story about “Alton’s Farm” (at the link) was epic and sad.
People like Ginny are probably irreplaceable when it comes to preserving our literary tradition. Given the current state of academia, the system is simply incapable of replacing them. She wrote mostly about political issues for Chicago Boyz, but occasionally she posted on literary topics. Jonathan’s comment that she was vastly well read is an understatement. She never flaunted her knowledge, but her knowledge of authors both modern and classic and their relevance to the culture was vast indeed. I was very saddened to learn we’ve lost her.