Silent Connection (A Murder Mystery)

By: B. J. Baumgardner

About the Author

B. J. Baumgardner, born October 28, 1935 in San Jose, IL, was the 10th child in an intellectual and innovative family of 10 children. She felt blessed to have so many loving sisters and brothers.

B. J. lived a busy and interesting life. She received both a bachelor's degree (from ISU in Normal, IL) and a master's degree (from the U. of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, IL) in Physical Education. In addition, she earned a certificate from the Famous Writers School.

After teaching only two years in Dwight, IL, she decided to join the Navy to expand her knowledge of what life had to offer. And she was successful as evidenced by being assigned to the Pentagon upon graduation from Officer's Candidate School, which included delivering information regularly to the office of President Eisenhower and then President Kennedy.

But B. J. always wanted to be a teacher, so she returned to teaching in Bloomington, IL upon completion of her Navy commitment. She taught a Bloomington High School for 30 years and then retired to her two homes - one in Normal, Illinois and the other in Las Vegas, Nevada where she spent the winter months.

Not content with just teaching, B. J. continually needed a challenge. She and two friends, who were sisters, opened a clothing store in downtown Bloomington, IL featuring clothing for large woman called "Classics Unlimited." Since they purchased a building that included rental units, they purchased additional rental property also. They were so successful with the clothing store that they opened a second one in a mall in Decatur, IL. After ten years, they sold out as other major stores were finally adding clothing for larger women to their inventories. Soon after, they also got out of the rental business. But they had a good run with these two endeavors that were quite successful. If this weren't enough, B. J. loved music and singing, so she joined Sweet Adelines and performed with them for many years.

So what did this woman do upon retiring from teaching? Her friend and traveling companion was still working, so B. J. decided to write murder mystery novels - 2 of them. Fortunately, she had studied for two years at the Famous Writers School for fiction writing in her early years due to her interest in writing. This helped her as she wrote many articles and stories for friends throughout her life. After retirement when she decided to write the murder mysteries, this background with the Famous Writers School proved to be a big advantage to her.

In addition to all the above activities, B. J. played a lot of golf, because she loved the challenge of the game. Not surprising, she excelled at the sport. She also traveled continuously throughout the United States most of her life.

Although she writes under the name of B. J. Baumgardner, to most of her family and friends, Betty J. Baumgardner, is known as "Nip," a nickname given to her by her father when she was just a few days old. He introduced her as "a little nip of a thing." From then on, she was Nip - and still is today.