Ludima Gus Burton — A Very Special Lady

Jean C. Gordon here with a tribute to Avalon author and personal friend Ludima Gus Burton who passed away July 23 at age 94. I met Ludima in the late 1990s when I belonged to the Saratoga Chapter of the Romance Writers of America. Ludima was a charter member of the chapter and served as Treasurer for many years. She sold her first book, Only for a Year, to  Erin Cartwright-Nuimata at Avalon Books in 1999, the same month I sold my first book to Avalon.

Our books came out June 2000. They're still available for Kindle. And we had our first book signing together, along with Classic and Cozy author Tracey Lyons, who later also sold to Avalon Books.

Ludima was 80 years old!

She went on to write three more books for Avalon . . .

 . . .  and published six more non-Avalon books after that: A Surgeon's Miracle, The Christmas Ball, Never a Cougar, Drew Get's It Right, Wife: Lost and Found, and His Son, Her Daughter, which was just recently released.

Before becoming an author, Ludima taught high school Social Studies at Northville Central High School in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY for many years. She began her second career as an author of sweet romances in 1991 at age 71.

Always ready to give encouragement, she was a popular speaker at conferences, book signings and events, and her positive and generous spirit will be greatly missed by all who knew her. She loved life, literature, her family and friends, and animals, especially her little dogs, Nikko and Buster.