1890–1974 · American children’s author, screenwriter & P. F. Volland verse writer
Dixie Willson (30 July 1890 – 6 February 1974) was an American screenwriter and author of children’s books, novels and short stories, and the sister of The Music Man composer Meredith Willson. Her Volland picture books — Pinky-Pup (1922), The Empty Elephant (1923), Tuffy Good Luck (1927) — came from the Chicago house P. F. Volland Company, which also printed greeting cards, and Wikipedia lists her among Volland’s authors and illustrators. That working relationship is what makes the 1933 newspaper account of her walking into a Volland office and selling a birthday verse for five dollars plausible; her own Wikipedia entry, however, says nothing about the poem.