About Us

Founded in 1990, the Betsy-Tacy Society is committed to preserving existing landmarks  associated with Maud Hart Lovelace's life and work. A brief history of our organization is available here. In 1995, the BTS purchased 332 Center Street, the childhood home of Frances “Bick” Kenney Kirch, the real-life counterpart of Betsy's best friend Tacy Kelly. In early 2001, 333 Center Street, better known as Betsy's Hill Street house, was placed up for sale. The BTS  has purchased the home (which probably would have been demolished if we had not done so), furthering our goal of preserving properties associated with the Betsy-Tacy series. A fundraising campaign is ongoing, and we greatly need your support. Efforts to restore and maintain both homes are underway, and the crew of TV's Hometime has been instrumental in the repair work to date.

Tacy's house is open to the public on Saturday afternoons from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm. There is no admission fee on Saturday afternoons but donations are requested. Special hours are offered by appointment by calling 507-345-9777. Admission for special visits: Adults - $3.00 Children (ages 5-16) $1.00 (free for members). Tacy's house is closed on major holidays or during severe weather.

You can also take a self-guided walking tour of Mankato, where many of the buildings and sites described in the Betsy-Tacy books still exist.

Check our Schedule of Events for upcoming activities at Tacy's House and around “Deep Valley” (Mankato, Minnesota). Directions to the houses are here.

The Betsy-Tacy Society Publications

Members of the Betsy-Tacy Society receive The Deep Valley Sun, the newsletter of the Betsy-Tacy Society. There are also some selections from back issues of our previous publication, the Journal, on our website. We also have a Naughty Chair, for articles and information from our members. Happy Reading! 

Conventions in Deep Valley

Our first Convention was held in 1992, celebrating what would have been Maud Hart Lovelace's 100th birthday. The guest of honor was Merian Lovelace Kirchner, Maud's daughter, a great supporter of the Society, and sorely missed since her death in 1997. For a lovely reminiscence of Merian, read the blog of a friend of hers from New York. The Great Mankato Get-Together took place in 1995, and we commemorated the centennial of Betsy's fifth birthday party at our Convention in Mankato July 10-13, 1997. 250 members of all ages congregated in "Deep Valley" for this event. Our keynote speaker was Elizabeth Riley, the editor of the Betsy-Tacy books. And in July 2002, we held our most recent Convention, with Tacy's granddaughter Peggy Kirch as the keynote speaker and many other relatives in attendance. Convention 2002 reports and pictures are here.

Promoting the Betsy-Tacy Books

In 1992, only the first four books in the Betsy-Tacy series were available in bookstores. A lobbying campaign by our members was instrumental in convincing the publisher to reissue the ten main titles. And to top it off, HarperCollins reissued Carney's House Party, Emily of Deep Valley, and Winona's Pony Cart, books that were unavailable for decades! Unfortunately, within the past year all of the books other than the first four have again gone out of print due to poor sales. Please join our campaign to encourage HarperCollins to reverse this decision. And make sure to keep buying the first four books! You can purchase them at your local bookstore, via our online shop, or from Amazon.com by using the image link below (the BTS will get a portion of the sales price if you use this link).

The Betsy-Tacy Homepage
and
The Maud-L Listserv

Want to know more about the Betsy-Tacy books and Maud Hart Lovelace? Visit Nava Cohen's wonderful Betsy-Tacy Homepage! You may also enjoy the Maud-L listserv, an electronic mail discussion group focusing on all things Betsy-Tacy as well as conversations of more general interest. This is not a BTS-sponsored list but lots of our members belong to it. To subscribe, send an email to listserv@vm.mtsac.edu and put Subscribe Maud-L in the body of the message space. Make sure to type Maud-L with a capital L, and do not sign your name or put any other text in the message space. You'll receive a welcome message with further instructions shortly after you send your email.  If you have trouble subscribing to Maud-L, contact the list manager, Arline Mues (amues@mtsac.edu).

There are several fabulous recipes our listren have shared; they can be found here. And the Betsy-Tacy homepage has a whole bunch of muffin recipes from Maud-L members.