Celestine Sibley Receives Shining Light Award

Posted on October 27, 1997

Celestine Sibley, noted author, Atlanta Journal/Constitution columnist and quintessential friend of Atlanta, will receive the 1997 WSB Radio/Atlanta Gas Light Company Shining Light Award.

The award was announced today on Newstalk 750 WSB Radio. Ms. Sibley is the 31st recipient of the Shining Light Award.

Having begun her career in journalism at age 15 at the Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register, Ms. Sibley has been working as a reporter and columnist for more than half a century -- reporting from 1941 until 1978, and writing a column since 1945.

Her column, "Celestine Sibley," is a favorite of readers of the Atlanta Journal/Constitution. It is filled with home-spun reflections that cherish hometown people and everyday events.

She recently released three new books: "The Celestine Sibley Sampler," "Atlanta's Half-Century," and "Spider in the Sink."

Born in Holley, Fla., near Pensacola, she grow up in Creola, Ala., near Mobile. While editor of the school paper at Mobile's Murphy High, Ms. Sibley responded to a call from the Mobile Press-Register asking whether any students wanted to work on weekends. A journalistic legend-to-be, she assigned herself. She was a full-time reporter for the Press-Register from 1933 until 1936, and for the Pensacola News-Journal from 1936 until 1941.

In 1963 she sold a midtown Atlanta home and moved to a 119-year-old log cabin near Roswell. Since then, Sweet Apple Cabin and her life there have been the subjects of many of her columns.

Ms. Sibley is the author of more than 20 books, including the popular series of Kate Mulcay mysteries.

She is active in numerous organizations, promoting community welfare and the arts. She serves with the Board of Visitors at Grady Hospital, the Neighborhood Justice Center, the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Atlanta Area Services for the Blind.

"Beyond her reporting, her talent as a columnist makes us aware of people, their achievements and their problems," wrote Acworth's Kenneth Parker in his winning nomination. "Most of all she lets us laugh at ourselves."