The Sage of Smartsville Comes to Marysville

Yuba County Library - Table Talk
April 11, 2015

Although Rigby was known as “The Sage of Smartsville,” his stories cover a wide variety of places and subjects throughout Yuba County; and Marysville features prominently in the narrative. Co-editor Kathleen Smith will read from and discuss Rigby’s second book, The Sage of Smartsville: The Collected Stories of George Rigby, at the Yuba County Library in Marysville. The book brings together all of the 49 stories from Rigby’s 1984 book, plus 35 stories never before collected in book form.

Smith, co-author of a previous book, Smartsville and Timbuctoo, is looking forward to reading some of the stories about several trips to Marysville Rigby made as a child. Details of the stage coach ride to town and the other passengers as well as the sights of the big city of Marysville. The U. S. Hotel, The Brownie ice cream parlor, the Southern Pacific depot, a robbery and fatal shooting of a police officer in the Canteen Saloon, and “the China vegetable gardens of East Marysville” are just a few of the historic Marysville locations Rigby writes about.

Born in Sucker Flat, California, in 1909, Rigby graduated from Marysville Union High School in 1927 and went on to work a variety of mining and apprentice lineman jobs before serving in World War II. After the war he returned to Smartsville and worked as a telephone repairman at Beale Air Force Base.

The Sage of Smartsville Table Talk is from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 11, 2015 in the community room. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.

For questions about the event, please, contact Kathleen Smith at (916) 838-2757 or smartsville@gmail.com.