Esteemed children’s author and local notable, Suzanne Tate, has written the first and only definitive history of the Outer Banks’ newest town, Duck. Come by and talk with Suzanne about Duck as it used to be; she’d love to talk with you about it, this Wednesday at our Scarborough Faire Duck store from 3-5PM.
Q: What’s the title of your new book?
A: Duck
Q: Describe the book in one sentence.
A: The book is a pictorial history of Duck, North Carolina, from the 50s and 60s to the present.
Q: What books are on your bedside table?
A: I don’t read in bed!
Q: How long have you been writing?
A: I have been writing since I was a young child. I published a newsletter for my schoolmates when I was 12 years old. My first published book was Bring Me Duck, Folk Tales and Anecdotes from Duck, NC in 1986. It is still in print.
Q: Book you wish you could read again for the first time?
A: Letters from Skye [Jessica Brockmole]
Q: Favorite book and why:
A: Watership Down by Richard Adams. I admired the way the author crafted the story about a social order, using animals as the main characters. I especially like any books about animals. When I was a child, I loved the Mother West Wind tales by Thornton Burgess.
Q: What brings you to the Outer Banks?
A: I first came to the Outer Banks in December 1953 with Everett Tate, a native of Duck, to celebrate Christmas with his family at Duck. We married in 1954 in Charleston, South Carolina, where Everett was captain of a shrimp boat, and I was a LTJG in the U.S. Navy. We changed careers and moved to Duck in 1961. A year later, we went to Nags Head, where we opened “Tate’s Landing,” a bait and tackle and seafood store. The store was short-lived, and Everett accepted an appointment as Postmaster at Nags Head. We returned to Duck for dinner with his family nearly every Sunday for 50 years. Following Everett’s death in 2008, I moved to Manteo and now live there with my husband, Billy Gray.
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