Delaware

Current Laureate:
JoAnn Balingit

Start of Term:
May 14, 2008

Position History:
Position established April 28, 1947 (Laws, Vol. 46, Chap. 347; Code, Title 29, Sec. 4401). The Delaware Department of State website provides a brief history of the position. After E. Jean Lanyon's term expired in 1981, no new laureate was named and she served as unofficial poet laureate until Fleda Brown's appointment in 2001. The position is now open-ended; a new bill passed June 28, 2000, replaced "a 2 year term Poet Laureate who is to be appointed January 1 of odd numbered years (with Department of State office space mandated) with an appointment at the pleasure of the Governor."

Previous Laureates:
Edna Deemer Leach (1947-1949)
Jeannette Slocum Edwards (1950-1953)
Frances Shannon Flowers (McNeal) (1954)
Katherine King Johnson (1955)
David Hudson (1956-1960)
Alison Kimball Bradford (1961)
Margaret Eleanor Weaver (1962)
Mother Aloysius Peach (1963-1964)
Dr. Percival R. Roberts, III (1965-1966)
Joyce Carlson (1967-1968)
Antonia Bissell Laird (1969-1970)
Dr. Harry O. Eisenberg (1971)
David Hudson (1975-1976)
E. Jean Lanyon (1979-1981)
Fleda Brown (October 26, 2001-2007)

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