Charlotte Paul; Wrote ‘50s Best Sellers

SEATTLE —  Author Charlotte Paul, whose works on raising a family, writing books and running a newspaper were best-sellers in the 1950s, died of cancer at the age of 73.

Miss Paul died Wednesday night at a hospital in Anacortes and memorial services will be held on Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands.

Born in Seattle, Miss Paul set many of her books, both fiction and non-fiction, in the Pacific Northwest. Her most recent novel, published in 1987, was “Seattle.”

Miss Paul, who wrote under her own name, and her husband, Ed Groshell, owned a small newspaper, and her book “Minding Our Own Business” was about the trials and tribulations of child-raising, writing and running a newspaper. It hit the best-seller lists in 1955.

In the ‘50s, Miss Paul also wrote “Hear My Heart Speak,” “Gold Mountain” and “The Cup of Strength.”

“Phoenix Island” was published in 1976 and has sold more than 1 million copies. “A Child Is Missing” hit the presses in 1978 along with another novel, “Wild Valley.”

After a divorce, Miss Paul married Robert W. Reese. In 1970, the couple moved to Lopez Island and she returned to writing.