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The unofficial poet laureate of Boulder, Florence Becker Lennon, died nearly 40 years ago. Her passion for sharing poetry hasn’t been replaced in the community.
Born Florence Tanenbaum in New York City in 1895, she was educated at the Horace Mann School, and later attended Columbia University as well as the University of Colorado.
She was a lifelong human rights activist who proudly demonstrated for women’s suffrage at the White House in 1919, and a bohemian who studied dance, literature and poetry.
Impressed by Dr. Maria Montessori’s teaching philosophy, Lennon completed Montessori training but became discouraged when course administrators clearly wouldn’t support Jewish teachers in finding jobs, she recalled in a Daily Camera interview.
Lennon came to Boulder in 1941, with two daughters in tow. She stayed for the rest of her life. “Why would anyone live anywhere else?, she once asked.
Soon after she settled in Boulder, her book, “Victoria Though the Looking-Glass; the Life of Lewis Carroll,” was published, after 15 years of research and another five years of writing. Her scholarly legacy, the book is still referenced and is held in nearly 1,000 library collections.
Carroll, noted for his clever word play, was a perfect subject for Lennon, who wrote poems from the time she was a child and introduced many Boulder children to the adventure of poetry.
As a visiting poet to Boulder classrooms, she arrived wearing thick cat eyeglasses and favored bold-patterned clothing and the color purple. Teachers noticed that she sparkled as she read poems to the class. Lennon believed that poetry was inside each child. “You try to get out of them what’s in them,” she said. She also believed that poetry was meant for the ear, and she encouraged student writers to read their work aloud. If a child was shy, she offered to read for them — but only one time. Teachers were amazed at the prose she drew out of their students.
Lennon traveled back to New York City in the 1950s and 1960s to host a radio program on WEVD called “Enjoyment of Poetry,” with guests that included Langston Hughes and Anne Sexton.
Selected recordings of the show are preserved at the Library of Congress.
Her Montessori training served Boulder well. In 1964, Lennon, along with a group including Chris and Margot Brauchli, founded Jarrow Montessori School which is still going strong.
She gave her time to many community organizations including PLAN Boulder, Attention Homes, Friends of the Library, Historic Boulder, and the Colorado Mountain Club.
She taught at Boulder’s Community Free School. At the Arts Council she called for poets to unite and for venues to showcase their work.
In 1975, to mark her 80th birthday, friends gave a party and a $600 donation to the Boulder Library Foundation to create the Florence Becker Lennon poetry awards for young people.
The contest ran for many years.
The same year she received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from CU.
She wrote for many different publications and released several volumes of her own poems.
Her poem, My Town, shared at the 1983 PLAN Boulder County banquet, includes humorous lines on local architecture:
‘The houses crawling up the mountain lack deep roots — may they not slide into the vale! And — can you tell the schoolhouse from the jail?’
Well into her 80s, she was still traveling, advocating for poetry, writing ,and advising students. She died at age 89.
Her longtime friend, environmental activist Ricky Weiser said, “Florence Becker Lennon was our conscience. … Her encouragement of poets, especially those who also happened to be children, was another gracious gift to this community.”