Suzy Beggin McKenna

815-541-0897 - Suzy@SuzyBeggin.com

Books Published

Suzy's Musings & More

Compilation of 130 short “Musings” (my weekly newspaper article) and 23 articles of in-depth historical research published in the Freeport iNK (newspaper) between May 2001 and October 2004. Self-published. 160 pages. (2004, 1st Edition; 2023, 2nd Edition)

The 2023 edition is available on Amazon as a paperback and as an e-book.

Primary Sources

Newspaper accounts, diary entries and letters from the 19th century recounted with historical introduction and footnotes on each. Published by the Stephenson County Historical Society. 70 pages. (2001)

African-American History in Stephenson County

Historical account and teaching activities for the often-overlooked history of Stephenson County’s African-American history, 1850s to 2000. Written after procuring a grant from the Freeport Community Trust. Published by the Stephenson County Historical Society. 30 pages. Winner of the 1999 Award of Merit from the Illinois Association of Museums. (1999)

Feature Writing

The Freeport Focus (Newspaper); Freeport, Illinois

April 2005 to December 2007

Research and write a weekly 200-word column, “Suzy’s Doozies,” on the history of common items.

The Freeport iNK & The StephCo iNK, Freeport (Newspapers); Freeport, Illinois

May 2002 to April 2005

Research and write a weekly 200-word column, “Suzy’s Musings,” on the history of common items. Syndicated in both newspapers. The Freeport iNK was targeted to readers in Freeport and the StephCo iNK was targeted to readers in the communities around Freeport.

Fiber Wild! (Blog)

July 2011 to October 2017

Weekly blog for a local yarn shop, Fiber Wild! Some blogs promoted a new yarn or sale, but many featured yarn or knitting in history. I was a ghost writer, so some of the blogs had the by-line of the shop owner and some had the by-line of shop's cat.