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Kathleen Sears Biography & Facts

William Bernard Sears (March 28, 1911 – March 25, 1992) was an American writer and a popular television and radio personality in various shows culminating in the 1950s with In the Park but left television popularity to promote the Baháʼí Faith in Africa and embarked on a lifelong service to the religion, for some 35 years as Hand of the Cause, the highest institution of the religion he could be appointed to. He wrote many books about the religion, with Thief in the Night and God Loves Laughter being his most popular. Biography Earliest life William Bernard Sears was born March 28, 1911, in Aitkin, Minnesota,: p.1  to the Irish American household of Frank and Ethel Sears. William was the youngest child of four, and Frank and Ethel's only son.: p.1  The Sears raised their children Catholic.: 9:53min  When young, William suffered a bout of jaundice, which affected his health later in life.: p.31  As a young adult during the Great Depression in the United States, Sears worked as a playwright under the name Bernard Sears, winning some awards in 1933. Some of his plays were published in 1935/36, including Dad Cashes In, which has many of Sears' biographical aspects,: p.3  and one play which was produced. The plays did not generate enough income for him to continue writing full-time, so Sears got what would be his first job in a long career in broadcasting, at WOMT in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.: p.4  His young wife, Kathleen Sears, died during the Depression,: p.6  leaving him with their two young sons, William and Michael. Sears remarried, and he and his new wife, Marguerite Reimer Sears, raised the boys together.: p.6  Second marriage and the Baháʼí Faith William met Marguerite in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when he attended the University of Wisconsin, and she Marquette University. She had only recently joined the Baháʼí Faith, hearing about it from her father after a meeting Mary Maxwell, wife of a prominent Baháʼís leader. Their relationship advanced but they did not immediately marry. William was working in Iowa for the now former WGRR radio station of Radio Dubuque. On the way to California for a job with KFBK (AM) the couple considered living in Utah because it was a goal area for the religion.: 6:23min  They ended up living in Salt Lake City in spring 1939, (apparently as their contribution to Shoghi Effendi's call for Baháʼís to relocate to support the religion) where he was soon assistant manager of KUTA radio station (later KNRS (AM).) When they decided to marry, Marguerite and William's wedding was arranged in San Francisco by Marion Holley during their visit out there for a radio broadcast Sears did in September 1940. Between them, there were two clear understandings. On her part, it was that the religion was a prominent part of her life, and he would have to work with it being a priority for her — affecting, for example, where they would live.: 4:05min  On his side, it was that he had a year-old son with tuberculosis, and he needed someone to help care for him.: p.6  Marguerite left the Baháʼí book The Dawn-Breakers out for him to read. After picking it up and setting it aside once,: p.9  he read it three times in three weeks: 7:47min  and by December 1939 was avowedly a Baháʼí, officially joining the religion in 1940. Sears and Marguerite moved to San Mateo, California, about the summer of 1942, where a Baháʼí Spiritual Assembly had lapsed, and he gave an especially noted talk about using radio to promote the religion. In San Mateo, they were visible giving talks on the religion as late as February 1944. He embarked on a national tour in 1945, beginning with talks in the New York City area in February. Then, after a break, he gave another 48 talks across August and September through Salt Lake City, Laramie, Denver, Omaha, Topeka, Kansas City, Independence, Milwaukee, Omaha, and into Canada in November, as well as Charlottetown. He was back in New York in December, giving a talk, and participated in a statewide conference of Baháʼís. During this period he was also on a committee that consulted on the religion's use of radio along with Mildred Mottahedeh, prominently appeared at a peace banquet with Dorothy Beecher Baker (also a future Hand of the Cause), gave talks in 1946 at a meeting back in Los Angeles with scholar Marzieh Gail, and helped produce a higher-profile radio segment in Denver. There is a gap in public coverage of any talks for the religion from 1946 until 1952, though his behind-the-scenes work continued and began to weave into his rising profile in the public eye and his service to the religion. Rising to national awareness As early as 1946, Sears was more noticeable in public, working for various radio and television stations. He worked at WPEN AM radio, and by 1948 at WCAU-TV, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In between, in February 1947, Marguerite led a class in radio production at Green Acre Baháʼí School in Maine for which Sears acted as narrator and consultant before it airing on WHEB, and by June Sears produced a set of radio spot announcements and national radio shows for the religion. For commercial work he did various shows including The Bill Sears Show, while at the same time, his first booklet publication came out: The Martyr-Prophet of a World Faith, a 19-page work with quotes from A. L. M. Nicholas, Francis Younghusband, E. G. Browne, and then he worked for the WCAU show Kid Gloves, while at the same time Sears taped an interview of Hand of the Cause Corinne True about her pilgrimage in 1907. In December 1951 he began to host a television show In The Park initially on WCAU as a 15-minute program, which was picked up by WCBS-TV as a 30-minute live program. It featured conversations between Sears and puppets by Paul Ritts and Mary Donnelly with "… Sears (dressed in suit jacket, vest, string tie, and hat) as he sat leisurely on a bench and conversed with his puppet friends" in the Central Park Zoo. In July 1952 the show was advertised as costing $3250 to produce per week. At the same time as the show was coming along, Sears was included in a profile of thinkers by Edward R. Murrow in his This I Believe radio series though none of the participants were allowed to name their religion, (the series published as a book, with Sears' entry on pp. 167–8, and released on the internet c. 2005.) Sears began to give more public talks for the religion covered in the newspapers, beginning with a funeral in Maine in the summer of 1952. The Ten Year Crusade, a major initiative to bring the religion to countries around the world, was announced in October and would soon figure prominently in the Sears' plans. In the Park was noted in many newspaper stories in December 1952 related to The Ed Sullivan Show, and actually appeared twice on the show — January and March 1953. Coverage of In the Park continued into May. Meanwhile, he was attending the May 2 dedication of the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette. Progress in organizing the efforts of the T.... Discover the Kathleen Sears popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Kathleen Sears books.