Storyteller and humorist Garrison Keillor crafted the fictional Lake Wobegon, a small Minnesota town filled with colorful characters who had National Public Radio listeners across the United States tuning in every week for decades starting July 6, 1974. But the simple ways of Lake Wobegon were no match for the changing culture of the real world.
Courtesy of Garrison Keillor
Keillor’s life is not without controversary, including accusations of inappropriate behavior in the workplace against Keillor in 2017. With those, he left NPR and Minnesota Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion” brand. Today, the octogenarian is living with his family in New York. In honor of PHC’s 50th anniversary, Keillor is stepping up to the microphone again to take fans back to a place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” The tour stops at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater July 12-14 (sold out as of press time) and in Duluth July 19.
Courtesy of Garrison Keillor
At its height, “A Prairie Home Companion” had millions of listeners. This was live radio, before streams, downloads, and rebroadcasts. Keillor and PHC had more than 1,500 broadcasts in over 365 venues across the nation. There was a 2006 film based on the radio program set in St. Paul that featured Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, and Kevin Kline.
Keillor says he still writes daily and, in 2023, published “Cheerfulness,” an ode to aging, love, kindness, forgiveness, and the brighter side of everyday life. The wisdom of this new book unfolds over 20 chapters in autobiographical anecdotes, covering his early days in Anoka, his thoughts on aging in America, and life’s eccentricities. In his own words, “Sometimes you have to look hard to find your way out of the darkness.”
“You get some hard knocks in life but you still dance and let your heart sing. I didn’t get knocked as hard as those kids did and any despair I feel is simply grandiosity: get over it.”
–Garrison Keillor, “Cheerfulness”
