death_date death_place children birth_place nationality birth_date image article_title name occupation spouses
21 june 2009 cornwallville , new york , united states jessica gilmour brooklyn , new york , united states american november 24 , 1939 hb 5.jpg h. b. gilmour
 h. b. gilmour author , publisher -lrb- 1 -rrb- jules bemporad
h. b. gilmour

h. b. gilmour -lrb- november 24 , 1939 , brooklyn , new york -- june 21 , 2009 , cornwallville , new york -rrb- was a bestselling author of children 's books .
she grew up in williamsburg , brooklyn with her mother and the extended family and fondly remembered writing her very first poem for arbor day when she was just eight years old .
as a teenager , she moved to florida to live with her father .
she attended college there and then moved back to new york city .
gilmour 's first publishing job was at e.p. dutton .
in 1964 she joined bantam books where she worked as copywriter , editor , and copy chief and as an associate director of marketing .
she was married to bruce gilmour in 1968 .
she had a child , jessica , with him in 1970 .
they were divorced in 1972 .
her first novel `` the trade '' , a trashy paperback about the publishing business , was published in 1969 .
she wrote novelizations -lrb- including `` saturday night fever '' -rrb- and children 's books -lrb- including muppets books -rrb- while working full-time at bantam and raising a child on her own .
she published her second original novel `` so long , daddy '' in 1985 .
the artwork for the dust jacket of the hardcover release includes a photo of her daughter , jessica .
her third novel was `` ask me if i care '' , a book about a teenage girl who gets in with the wrong crowd .
in 1992 she joined the book division at scholastic , leaving in 1995 to pursue writing full-time .
she focused her energy on books for `` tweens '' and children which is what gave her the most joy .
she met john johann , whom she would later marry , in 1992 .
they later moved to cornwallville in upstate new york where she happily tended to the garden she never had in the city until her death .
she died on june 21 , 2009 of pneumonia due to complications from lung cancer .
she is survived by her husband john , daughter jessica , stepchildren wendy and john , jr. and step-grandchildren reef , riley , john jr. and jasmine .
gilmour 's best known novels are the `` clueless '' series with author randi reisfeld .
