Barbara Neely

Barbara Neely (often self-stylized as BarbaraNeely) is an African-American novelist, short story writer and activist who writes murder mysteries. Her first novel, Blanche on the Lam (1992), introduced the protagonist Blanche White, a middle-aged mother, domestic worker and amateur detective.
Biography
Early life and education
Barbara Neely, born in 1941, was the oldest of three children born to Ann and Bernard Neely who lived in a rural Pennsylvania Dutch community in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
She attended a Roman Catholic elementary school and was the only child in her class of Pennsylvania German dialect (popularly known as Pennsylvania Dutch) students to speak English fluently and was the only student of African American descent to attend her elementary and high school. In 1971 she moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she was awarded a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Pittsburgh...