Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni (January 5, 1888March 26, 1970) was an Italian-American poet. Marinoni had more than 1,000 of her short stories published in 70 magazines and her poems were published in more than 900 U.S. and international publications. Arkansas governor

Benjamin Travis Laney Benjamin Travis Laney, Jr. (November 25, 1896January 21, 1977), was an American businessman who served as the List of governors of Arkansas, 33rd governor of Arkansas from 1945 to 1949. Life and career Laney was born in Camden, Arkansas, Camden, ...

named October 15, 1948, the state's first annual Poetry Day due to her efforts. Her

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1990.

Career

During the middle of the 1920s, Marinoni wrote poems quickly and her writing was published around 60 times during the beginning of her career. She founded the University-City Poetry Club in 1926 and the club shared their poems at her home for 45 years, leading to around 18 published compilations. Marinoni founded a northwest Arkansas chapter of the National League of American Pen Women. In 1928, the Arkansas Federation of Woman's Clubs gave Marinoni the organization's title of

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

and in 1953, she was named the state's poet laureate by the Arkansas General Assembly. Due to Marinoni promoting poetry throughout the state, Arkansas governor

proclaimed October 15, 1948 as the state's first annual Poetry Day. Arkansas governor

Winthrop Rockefeller Winthrop Rockefeller (May 1, 1912 – February 22, 1973) was an American politician and philanthropist. Rockefeller was the fourth son and fifth child of American financer John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He is one of the g ...

proclaimed October 15 as Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni Day in 1969. Marinoni had more than 1,000 of her short stories published in 70 magazines and her poems were published in more than 900 U.S. and international publications. She also published around 19 books and the titles include ''Behind the Mask'' (1927), ''Roots to the Sky'' (1956), and a series containing four books. Marinoni stated that "a poet's worth must be gauged by the national or international renown which his or her work enjoys" and that "Arkansas is not known as a poet-producing state".

Personal life

Marinoni was born in

Bologna, Italy Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, on January 5, 1888, to Antero Zagnoni and Maria Marzocchi. She and her parents immigrated to the United States in 1898 to live in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. On July 30, 1908, she married Antonio Marinoni who worked at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

. She moved to

Fayetteville, Arkansas Fayetteville () is the second-largest city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the biggest city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until ...

, which was where her husband lived. They had six children, with two of them dying in infancy. Marinoni helped the American Red Cross during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After Antonio died in 1944, Marinoni married again in 1946 to a faculty member of the University of Arkansas named Luigi Passarelli. They were married until Passarelli's death in 1953. Marinoni died on March 26, 1970, and was buried at Saint Joseph Cemetery in Fayetteville. Her home, Villa Rosa, was added to the

in 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zagnoni Marinoni, Rosa 1888 births 1970 deaths Italian emigrants to the United States Writers from Brooklyn 20th-century American poets American women poets People from Fayetteville, Arkansas Poets Laureate of Arkansas Italian women poets 20th-century American women writers