Marcia Pankake Collection of A Prairie Home Companion

Marcia Pankake was raised on a farm in Maple Grove, MN. She attended the University of Minnesota, earning advanced degrees in American Studies and Library Science. She was hired as a librarian at the university in the 1970s, and helped build the literature collections there until her retirement in 2006. The Pankake Poetry Series at the University of Minnesota was founded in her honor. She and her husband Jon Pankake were members of the Minnesota string band, Uncle Willie and the Brandy Snifters. Longtime friends of Garrison Keillor, Marcia and Jon co-edited a collection of songs from the Prairie Home Companion radio show, published in the U. S. by Viking as Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book, and published in England by Faber under a different title, that of Joe's Got a Head Like A Ping-Pong Ball. In 1999 Marcia Pankake edited a second publication A Prairie Home Companion Commonplace Book: 25 Years on the Air with Garrison Keillor.