This is the day that … Eugenia Price was converted, in 1949.
Born June 22, 1916 in Charlestown, Vancouver, Canada, young “Genie” grew up with agnostic views, and followed her father’s profession by studying dentistry in Chicago. Three years later she quit the course and began writing scripts for radio shows. Price credited her mother for nurturing her passions for writing, music, and history.
Without getting a degree Eugenia was offered work with the NBC network, writing daytime serials. She went from there to work with Proctor and Gamble writing the serial Joyce Jordan, M.D. In 1945 she started Eugenia Price Productions, producing daytime serials. She also hosted or cohosted radio programs in Chicago.
In 1949, she was 33 years of age – and still far from the Kingdom. But Ellen Riley, a childhood friend and now a Christian, crossed her path again.
“Some people come to God gently. Not Eugenia Price. She kicked and fought every inch of the way. But finally, on 2 October, 1949, in a New York City hotel room, Eugenia Price was born the second time …” (More Than Conquerors, by J. Woodbridge, page 132).
No longer would she write “murder stories for children,” and for a while it was tough going. Then the Lord opened doors and Genie found herself hosting an hour and a half radio program.
By October, 1950, she was scripting “Unshackled” – stories of transformed lives – that was destined to become “world famous” (ibid, page 132).
Her pen turned to writing best sellers – Woman to Woman, (Zondervan), her own autobiography, The Burden is Light, and Christian fiction like Beloved Invader.
By 1961 she had written 11 non-fiction books and ventured into historical fiction after a visit to St Simons Island in Georgia. She already knew of a minister, Anson Dodge who built Christ Church in honour of his bride who died of cholera on their honeymoon in India.
Price and fellow writer Joyce Blackburn spent 3 years researching the history of the people and community, leading to her St Simons historical fiction series.
Thirty-five books bear Eugenia Price’s name, and at the time of her death more than 40 million copies had been sold.
“I am a believer in Jesus Christ,” she said. “Since I would be bored to write a book which did not include Him, I attempt sincerely to show His Divine intervention and involvement with all human life.”
This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.
