Celebrating Robert Heinlein: A Day to Remember in Butler, Missouri

Paying It Forward

After Robert Heinlein’s death on May 8, 1988, Virginia Heinlein revealed that one of her husband’s final wishes was to support the library in his birthplace of Butler, Missouri.

This led to the establishment of the Robert A. Heinlein and Virginia Heinlein Library Foundation, which became a cornerstone of the library’s financial support.

Funded by royalties from eight of Heinlein’s works—The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Farnham’s Freehold, Orphans of the Sky, Space Cadet, Rocket Ship Galileo, Methuselah’s Children, Waldo and Magic, Inc., and Revolt in 2100—the Foundation enabled a major expansion of the library in 1991.

This expansion doubled the library’s size, adding new children’s and adult sections, a workroom, an office, a community meeting room (Virginia’s idea), and a Heinlein reference room showcasing memorabilia from the author and his wife. This was the very room I was now standing in.

The new wing of the library is, quite appropriately, named the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Addition.

Newspaper cuttings in the Heinlein scrapbook relate how Virginia Heinlein herself attended the opening of the new addition on Saturday, November 2, 1991, along with a crowd of about 100 Heinlein fans and various patrons and friends of the library.

Described in the news clipping as “quiet and unassuming”, Mrs. Heinlein expressed her pleasure with the new structure, saying it fulfilled her husband’s wish to expand the library in his birthplace.

Speaking at the event, Robert Heinlein’s literary agent Ralph Vicinanza described Heinlein as “a visionary who took a risk and shared his vision with us.” He added, “Robert Heinlein became the voice of science fiction; in fact, he was the grand master of science fiction.”

State Senator Harold Caskey and Representative Harold Weil presented Mrs. Heinlein with resolutions from their respective branches, while Chamber of Commerce President Cheryl Morrow gave her a commemorative plaque.

Butler Mayor George Vowels welcomed attendees and expressed appreciation for what the addition meant to the community. Library Board Member Helen Booth shared the library’s history and concluded, “The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Foundation gift will never be forgotten, and we thank the Heinleins, the City of Butler, and friends of the library for making all this a reality.”

The ceremony ended with a ribbon-cutting by Mrs. Heinlein and Library Board President Janet O’Bannon, officially opening the new facility.

For over an hour, well-wishers approached Mrs. Heinlein to share their gratitude and offer kind words. She also signed several Heinlein books brought by attendees. I certainly wish that I’d been one of those attendees, just as I wish I’d been present at “Robert’s Day” 11 years earlier.

In all, I spent about 30 minutes pouring over the scrapbook. In addition to letters, newspaper articles, photos and other documents relating to the two celebrations described above, the folder contains a letter from NASA to Virginia Heinlein confirming that a crater on Mars had been named after Heinlein. There are several other items but the most significant are obituaries of both Robert and Virginia Heinlein. Robert died on May 8, 1988; Virginia on January 18, 2003. Virginia’s ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean, as her husband’s had been nearly 15 years earlier. Virginia had been a remarkable person in her own right and inspired many of the strong female characters in her husband’s stories.

I closed the scrapbook. It was time to ask the library assistant if he would open the glass cabinet that contained that beautiful leather-bound Virginia Edition of Heinlein’s works, along with other collectables. I would understand if he couldn’t – or wouldn’t – but I was hopeful.

Next: The Virginia Edition