To say Bonnie Bing is "well-known" feels like an understatement. She has championed many charitable causes, served on numerous boards, and chances are, she emceed the last event you attended. Bing also was a long-time columnist for The Wichita Eagle, and a selection of those columns make up her new book titled "Wait... Now What?", which she explained to KMUW's Beth Golay:
When I don't understand something I've learned, it's best to just say, Wait, now what? So I think it's just kind of my saying that I want to know a little more, or I want to understand a little better.
So you write about some jobs you've had throughout your career, which has had an unusual trajectory, hasn't it?
It really kind of has I decided in the seventh grade I wanted to be a physical education teacher, and I stuck to that, and I have a master's degree in physical education, and I did teach at the junior high level. And then Wichita State women's athletics had no one raising money for them. I was really needing a break from teaching, so I was out at Wichita State for about five years. And then the newspaper, Buzz Merritt, who was the big editor in the newsroom at the time, and Joe Harper, who was a managing editor, said, "We want to take you to lunch." And I couldn't figure out what they wanted me to do at the paper. They were talking about the shortage of newspaper carriers, and I thought, "oh my gosh, these people want me to throw papers early in the morning." And then they asked me what was wrong with the paper, and I said they didn't cover women's sports worth a darn, and the social column was all about the same, 20 people every week. And they said, "Well, why don't you write that column?" I couldn't believe what they were saying to me. I said, Okay, I'll give it a shot." And I went part time for like, $150 a week, I think so I decided, well, this isn't too bad. I'll stay for a while, if they'll keep me. But I went in and told him, "I need more money, because I can spend $150 during lunch at a shoe sale."
Do you remember your first assignment at The Eagle?
Oh, my first social column assignment was a big birthday party for a well known family in town, and I named people in it, and it got so people just read the bold print, I think, to see the names, they didn't anything else. I call that a Ralph Reed, because that's what my dad did. But my first big assignment, the actress Patricia Neal, was in town staying with a friend who lived here, and I knew the friend, and she called and said, I think it would be fun for you to interview her. And I had never interviewed a big star, but that was wonderful. She was really a lovely woman.
I've read this book, and I haven't made an official tally, but if you had to guess, what subject do you think you wrote about most in this book?
Well, the old swimsuit columns always got a ton of response. Faithful readers would say, When are you going to put out the swimsuit column? And I said, "Don't you think I've said everything I can?" "No, no, do another one. Do another one." So I would do another I think there are four in the book.
Bonnie Bing will have a book signing Thursday, Nov. 20, at 6 p.m. at Watermark Books and Cafe.
