Garrison Keillor Biography
Garrison Keillor born Gary Edward is an American author, storyteller, humorist, voice actor and radio personality. He is best known as the creator of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion which he hosted from 1974-2016. He was born on 7th August 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota.
Garrison Keillor Age/Family
Keillor was born on August 7th, 1942 ( he is 76 years old as of 2018) He was born to Grace Ruth and John Philip Keillor. His father was a carpenter and a postal worker who was half Canadian. Keillor’s family belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, an Evangelical Christian movement that he has since left. In 2006, he told Christianity Today that he was attending the St. John the Evangelist Episcopal church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, after previously attending a Lutheran church in New York.
Garrison Keillor Education
Keillor graduated from Anoka High School in 1960 and from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1966. During college, he began his broadcasting career on the student-operated radio station known today as Radio K.
Garrison Keillor Wife
Keillor has been married three times. He was married to Mary Guntzel from 1965 to 1976 and they had one son, Jason. He was then married to Ulla Skaerved, a former exchange student from Denmark at Keillor’s high school whom he re-encountered at a class reunion, from 1985 to 1990. He married classical string player Jenny Lind Nilsson, who is also from Anoka, in 1995. They have one daughter, Maia Grace Keillor.
Garrison Keillor Career
Garrison Keillor started his professional radio career in November 1969 with Minnesota Educational Radio then later Minnesota Public Radio, which today distributes programs under the American Public Media brand. He hosted a weekday drive-time broadcast called A Prairie Home Entertainment, on KSJR FM at St. John’s University in Collegeville.
The show’s eclectic music was a major divergence from the station’s usual classical fare. During this time he submitted fiction to The New Yorker magazine, where his first story for that publication, “Local Family Keeps Son Happy,” appeared in September 1970.
Keillor later resigned from The Morning Program in February 1971 because he was in protest of what he considered interference with his musical programming; as part of his protest, he played nothing but the Beach Boys’ “Help Me, Rhonda” during one broadcast.
He later attributed to the idea of the live Saturday night radio program. August 1973, MER announced plans to broadcast a Saturday night version of A Prairie Home Companion with live musicians.