Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Need beauty? These are 7 of the most gorgeous gardens in the D.C. area.

Nationals finally run out of answers and fall to Orioles in 12 innings

4 best things to do with kids in the D.C. area this weekend

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

Indy Star bars columnist from Caitlin Clark’s games after awkward exchange

5 big travel lessons from a Patagonia CEO-turned-conservationist

Cruise worker accused of stabbing 3 with scissors arrested in Alaska

France tries to shed its rude reputation ahead of the Olympics

Protesters descend on Eurovision, object to Israel’s participation

Emboldened Russia marks Victory Day with parade of nuclear-capable weapons

Deaf baby hears for the first time after ‘groundbreaking’ gene therapy trial

Think you want a dog? Take our quiz to find out if you’re ready.

In Photos: Russians mark 79th Victory Day with military parade

Tornadoes hit Michigan, damage FedEx facility

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

Judge keeps tying Trump to possible intimidation

What extremism looks like to Sean Hannity and his party

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

RFK Jr’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

In the campaign against Donald Trump, do the ends justify the means?

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

The FTC’s noncompete clause rule goes too far

Ask Amy: Relatives keep giving me updates on my old family home

Ask Sahaj: My husband wants me to forget all about his emotional affair

Carolyn Hax: Was it wrong to approach late wife’s pal for no-commitment sex?

Hack targeting hospital chain Ascension is impacting patient care

A college professor wants to use Section 230 against Big Tech

Commerce Department revokes more export licenses to China’s Huawei

Trump hush money trial live updates: Witness testimony continues 

Donald Trump

JoAnn Cowan

Julie Garwood, a prolific and best-selling author of stories of romance and intrigue with settings that ranged from a medieval English castle under siege to the Louisiana bayou in a modern-day murder mystery, died June 8 at her home in Leawood, Kan. She was 78.

A family statement announced the death. Ms. Garwood had been treated for lung cancer.

Ms. Garwood built a wide fan base — writing more than 30 books and selling more than 35 million copies — with tales that mixed the hot passions of the romance genre and the detail-rich storytelling of a historian or whodunit writer. Her heroines tended to be wily and resilient but also could be quirky and witty, a reflection of the collection of women in her own Irish American upbringing.

The sex scenes were steamy but intentionally dialed down. “I want them to be romantic but not too graphic,” Ms. Garwood <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/show/1279.Julie_Garwood" target=_blank>wrote</a> in a reader question-and-answer forum hosted by the book review site Goodreads. “I don’t want them to be the ‘same old, same old,’ and that is tricky.”

In some books, she used recurring characters such as the Clayborne clan in her “Rose” series that began in 1995 with<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/133240" target=_blank> “For the Roses.”</a> The story, which mostly unfolds in the Montana territory in the late 19th century, was adapted into a popular 1997 TV movie that premiered on CBS, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117515/" target=_blank>“Rose Hill,” </a>starring Jennifer Garner.

Critics at times picked apart Ms. Garwood’s plots as formulaic and her narrative style as clunky, but her admirers were more than forgiving. Ms. Garwood was a headliner at romance-fiction conventions and book events. Ms. Garwood’s personal backstory, which she retold often, also became part of her attraction.

She missed long stretches of school as a girl because of illnesses, including a lengthy recovery after her tonsils were removed when she was 6. Even at 11, she still struggled to read. At a church-run summer remedial reading class, a math teacher, Sister Mary Elizabeth, was passing in the hall. She was asked to be Ms. Garwood’s tutor.

“She taught me to love the written word,” said Ms. Garwood. She was introduced to Nancy Drew mysteries and the short stories of O. Henry. Ms. Garwood needed to keep a dictionary nearby to look up words. The summer was so pivotal for Ms. Garwood that she named her daughter Elizabeth.

Her Catholic schooling also helped shape her future work. Nuns, churches and religious symbolism run through many of Ms. Garwood’s novels. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/107772" target=_blank>“The Prize”</a> (1991), a Saxon woman in 11th century England flees her castle disguised as a nun to escape the juggernaut of the Norman invasion. She is later captured and finds love with the baron who led the onslaught.

The idea for “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/107789" target=_blank>Heartbreaker,”</a> a novel published in 2000 and set in the late 1990s, came to Ms. Garwood as she looked over a confessional in a Catholic church in London. “What if you tell a sin you haven’t committed yet,” Ms. Garwood recalls thinking.

In the novel, a killer tells a priest of his plans to find another victim, saying he wanted the woman to know in advance to make the stalking more of a challenge. The twist is that the intended victim is the priest’s sister. A dashing FBI agent leads the hunt; romance ensues.

The book marked a new direction for Ms. Garwood into contemporary thrillers with, of course, ample room for romance and sex. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107773.Mercy" target=_blank>“Mercy”</a> (2001), readers are introduced to federal prosecutor Theo Buchanan, who becomes involved in a probe of a killing and crooked investments in New Orleans and bayou country.

The Buchanan family keeps popping up in other books: FBI agent Alec Buchanan in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41021664" target=_blank>“Murder List”</a> (2004) is assigned to protect a woman from a killer; Boston Police Det. Dylan Buchanan protects another woman in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107771.Slow_Burn" target=_blank>“Slow Burn”</a> (2005); and a sister, Jordan Buchanan, is at the center of a Texas murder mystery in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/9538" target=_blank>“Shadow Dance” </a>(2006).

In her last book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59420228" target=_blank>“Grace Under Fire” </a>(2022), a character named Michael Buchanan — a former Navy SEAL and high-powered Boston lawyer — becomes the bodyguard for a young heiress caught up in a web of violence.

Ms. Garwood bristled at being labeled a purveyor in outmoded literary stereotypes of strong men and women in distress. The women in her novels, she insisted, always end up the intellectual and sexual equal of any man — and often are shown to be more clever and intuitive.

“I learned early on that if I wanted to be heard,” she said, “I had to have a strong voice. I also got my warped sense of humor from my family.”

Julia Elizabeth Murphy was born Dec. 26, 1944, in Kansas City, Mo., one of six girls and a brother. Her father, who served in the same World War I unit as future president Harry S. Truman, did various jobs and was an amateur boxer; and her mother was a homemaker.

After raising a family, Ms. Garwood began studying nursing at Avila College in Kansas City. She added history as a double major after taking a course in Russian studies. (Ms. Garwood grew up believing her name was Julie but later found documents that showed her real name was Julia.)

A professor, impressed by her essays, encouraged her to take time off to write. The result was the manuscript of young adult fiction, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107784.A_Girl_Named_Summer" target=_blank>“A Girl Named Summer”</a> (eventually published in 1986), and the framework for a historical novel about a noble woman in feudal Britain who seeks revenge for the slaying of her family.

At a writer’s conference at Avila in the early 1980s, Ms. Garwood struck up a conversation with an agent, Andrea Cirillo, "who took pity on me standing by the corner like a wallflower,” Ms. Garwood said.

Cirillo asked about Ms. Garwood’s interests as a writer. Cirillo wasn’t interested in authors of children’s books. “Then she asked me what else I had,” Ms. Garwood recalled. She described the historical romance she had written, which Ms. Garwood titled “The Warrior.” Cirillo wanted a look.

The novel, changed to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/107792" target=_blank>“Gentle Warrior,”</a> was published in 1985. Sales were good. Ms. Garwood was asked for another, which became <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/107796" target=_blank>“Rebellious Desire”</a> (1986), a story about a test of wills between an English duke and a Boston woman who fled America.

Nearly every year after that, another story of long-ago romance and adventure hit the shelves.<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107779.The_Bride" target="_blank"> “The Bride” </a>(1989) has a swashbuckling heroine in medieval Scotland. In the 1990 novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/cs/book/show/107786.Guardian_Angel" target="_blank">“Guardian Angel,”</a> a marquis searches the slums of 19th century London for his brother’s killer and falls in love with a mysterious woman.

“My stories come from everywhere,” <a href="https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2008/03/chat-with-author-julie-garwood.html" target=_blank>said</a> Ms. Garwood, who also wrote several young adult-themed novels under the name Emily Chase. “I’ve always been a bit of a daydreamer, so there’s usually a story going on in my head at any given time.”

Ms. Garwood’s marriage to Gerald Garwood ended in divorce. Survivors include two sons, Gerald and Bryan, and a daughter, Elizabeth.

As her reputation grew as a writer, Ms. Garwood liked to joke about the helpful early career advice from her mother. “My mom used to say you could be anything you want to be,” Ms. Garwood recalled, “but learn to type.”

Various APME awards 

Wilbur Award for International Religion Reporting, 2007

New Men: Inside the Vatican's Elite School for American Priests

Root of Wild Madder: Chasing the History, Mystery and Lore of the Persian Carpet

81 Days Below Zero: The Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska's Frozen Wilderness 

Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It

Boston College, BA in Communications and Classics

Brian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. Murphy has reported from more than 50 countries and has written four books.

Brian Murphy

washpost

Julie Garwood, author of romance novels from past and present, dies at 78

the-washington-post

Julie Garwood obit 6/2023

Search Death Notices

Place a Death Notice

Request a News Obituary

Obituaries

prism://prism.query/obits-stream&limit=20

The Washington Post Obituaries section has Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia obituaries, appreciations and death notices as well as historical obits and celebrity obituaries.

prism://prism.query/site,/entertainment/books&limit=10

Books

Book reviews and news about new books, best sellers, authors, literature, biographies, memoirs, children's books, fiction, non-fiction and more. Search Washington, DC area books events, reviews and bookstores from the Washington Post.

prism://prism.query/site,/entertainment&limit=20

Arts & Entertainments

The latest news on entertainments and arts from The Washington Post. Breaking news and in-depth coverage of movies, music, tv, art, theater and video games.