The San Luis Obispo library’s very first librarian is getting a headstone.
Librarians were doing research for the 100th anniversary of SLO County libraries, and they discovered their first librarian was buried without a gravestone.
They started a gofundme page and raised $1,600 in three weeks.
Librarian Francis Margaret Milne was born in 1846. Her poetry is still published by the University of California Press.
A line of her poetry will be engraved in the headstone.
“I think the underlying theme: librarianship. You are trained to help people and we are always rooting for the underdog, so to speak, and I didn’t know that going into it but after reading some of her poetry to get to know her a bit, I learned that that’s what she championed,” Sharon Coronado, Coordinating Librarian for Adult Services.
The library is hoping to invite Milne’s family to a celebration of her life.
