About Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel
Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel (1918-2007), American poet, was no stranger to travel. “Movement had been the family modus operandi” since her father “loaded them into a covered wagon” to travel throughout Oklahoma visiting relatives and searching for work, writes biographer Betty Blanks. The road ultimately led west to California’s San Joaquin Valley, where her family sought escape from hard times during the Great Depression. Named the Tulare County poet laureate in the 1970s, McDaniel was dubbed "The Okie Poet" because of her writings about Oklahoma throughout her lifetime.McDaniel published more than fifty books of poetry and was the subject of a film documentary by Chris Simon, Down an Old Road: The Poetic Life of Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel.
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