Ardath Mayhar (1930-2012)

SF writer Ardath Mayhar, 81, has reportedly died in Nacogdoches TX. Mayhar wrote poetry in the 1940s and published pseudonymous Westerns and mainstream books before turning to SF and fantasy with “The Cat with the Sapphire Eyes” (1973). Her first SF novel, How the Gods Wove in Kyrannon (1979) was one of more than 60 books and scores of short stories she produced in her long career. In 2008 she received a SFWA Author Emeritus Award.

Ardath Frances Hurst was born February 20, 1930 in Timpson TX, and attended high school in Nagodoches. She married Joe E. Mayhar in 1958. They lived in Oregon for a few years before returning to Texas in the 1970s. Mayhard worked as a dairyman, chicken farmer, and proofreader before becoming a full-time writer in 1982. She ran the East Texas Bookstore in the ’50s and ’60s, and with her husband operated bookshop View from Orbit beginning in 1984 until the late ’90s. She also taught writing.

Her husband predeceased her in 1999. She is survived by two sons and two stepsons.

See the March issue of Locus for a complete obituary.