Eleanor Lambidakis

(early editor of the ‘Council newsletter)

She'd put some of her poetic musings that caught my attention in the early ‘Council (National Council on Stuttering) newsletters she tirelessly edited and published for many many years.  I always wanted to meet Eleanor but never did.  She was visiting here in the Bay Area (maybe a decade ago) but I was unaware of it at the time.  I found out a few weeks afterward of it and somehow found myself talking to her son (here locally, as I recall) on the phone and somehow got the feeling that that may have been the last opportunity I might ever have had to see her.

Back in the old ‘Council days (70's, 80's), I remember Herb Goldberg lobbying at one of our Conventions in DeKalb, Illinois to try to get funding so she could attend one of our Conventions there.  And I remember another ‘Council Convention years later I attended that put Sandra Wagner in tears (I think she might have almost resigned as Executive Director on the spot from the heartbreak) when the editorship was changed.  I agreed with Sandra.  It made no sense to me.  It was a funky homespun typewritten 'Xeroxed and stapled' newsletter that I liked.

Somehow, I remember a phone conversation with her back in my NYC days, a bit after Sidney Fields did that terrific article about me in '79 in the Daily News.  She wanted to get permission from them to publish it in her newsletter.

Self-esteem.  Thanks Eleanor.

Geoffrey