Speaker:
Shirley Deane, celebrated author and international traveler
We are delighted to welcome Shirley Deane as our
February speaker. Shirley was born in
New York City and was given her first accordion at the age of eight. At 27, she
left the United States to work her way around the world, playing her own brand
of jazz and classical music. She visited 67 countries, living in Pakistan for
six months, Nepal for a year, India for eight years, and South Africa for 14
years. She studied music, psychology and philosophy, attending NYU and the
University of Hawaii, and for a brief period studied medicine at the University
of Munich. She was the first woman to drive a Land Rover from London to Kathmandu,
and, later, managed a clinic at a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal for the Swiss
Red Cross, where she also raised funds and taught English. In 1967, she became
public relations officer and fundraiser for Inanda Seminary near Durban, South
Africa. She is the author of two previous books, Black South Africans,
a Who’s Who (Oxford University Press, Capetown, 1978), which she
published under Dee Shirley Deane, and Wisdom, Bliss, & Common
Sense: Secrets of Self-Transformation (Quest Books, 1989), which she
published under her Indian name, Darshani Deane. Ms. Deane returned to the
United States in 1998 and settled in Winston-Salem, where she now writes. Her
most recent book, An Unreasonable Woman: In Search of Meaning Around the
Globe, was published last year by local publishing company, Press53.
