Submitted by Bill Diehl, Apr 18, 2007 09:45

Hazel Rowley's "The Little House in the Lane," (4/18/07) is a fascinating piece of history that was
so colorfully told. Part of that history of course was Germaine Bree,the driving force behind
"Maison Francaise." While Ms. Rowley's article covered a lot of ground I wish it had also mentioned
(I went to Google to check it out) that Bree died Sept.22nd 2001 at her home in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. The Wake Forest University news service reported she was 93, a retired Professor of
Humanities at Wake Forest. She became a U.S. citizen in 1952. The Wake Forest article noted that Bree was credited with introducing a new generation of teachers and scholars to what were new French voices
of the modern era. "If you work your way through these literary works," said Bree in a 1995 newspaper article, "it's like talking with people who can lead you to come to terms with yourself, to open your eyes to what it is to be a human being in our society and our time." Quite a woman who I must confess (I don't speak French, 3 years was the best I could do in high school) I was not aware of until Rowley's article
in the New York Sun.
Bill Diehl, Correspondent, ÅBC News Radio, New York

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