reviews_and_ramblings | In memory of Iris Bancroft

Nothing about Iris Bancroft was typical, especially her birth. It was exotic—and tragic. She was born of missionaries in King Chow, Hupeh Provence, China, on May 26, 1922, a time of great unrest. Her parents were sent there by the Swedish Covenant Church to work with the Chinese converts. Her life comes full circle in one of her historical romances. Love's Burning Flame, when the heroine spends some time in Imperial China, where savagery, especially to women, was very common. Iris was one and a half when she left that turbulent continent, and her father died shortly thereafter. Her mother brought her to Chicago.

After her second marriage in 1961, Iris taught school and also sold insurance with her new husband, Keith Bancroft. Then a big change came over her life: in 1963, the West Coast beckoned. "We moved to California to work for nudist publications as photographers and writers, and later, as editors," recalled Iris. They continued to work for publishers of such magazines until, in 1977, they both quit their steady jobs to work as writers. Since then, she had made their living from her books. Iris boasted of seven published novels, using the pen-names of Iris Brent and Andrea Layton, along with her own.

Iris was a marvelous hostess and liked the life of the party. She also dabbled in painting and clay statues—she made erotic statues in the sixties. Then, there was the viola; she played in the Burbank Symphony Orchestra and in the La Mirada Symphony Orchestra, two community orchestras that accepted nonprofessional players. Her husband, she said, played in them both, too, but he was a pro, and was the leader of the trombone section in both groups. Neither Iris nor her husband were part of the Hollywood scene, though they were members of MENSA, and the Mystery Writers of America. She also sang regularly at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Mission Hills, but was not a member of any church.

Iris considered her literary success only moderate. "We live on the money I make, but only because we are frugal people. Keith is still just starting out as an author (of nonfiction books on photography), and so his contribution is not large yet. However, we recognize that we want very little that we don't already have. We still travel around the U.S., we visit with our friends, and we enjoy our beautiful home and our pets. We also enjoy each other. Ever since my marriage to Keith, we've worked together a great deal, and I am still delighted in his company." On the net I found a note about an Iris Bancroft from Los Angeles who passed away on December 2003, no info about her husband Keith.

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