Actor and author Michael Dante reunited with Mother Dolores Hart last month at the recent 13th Annual Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival, which took place Apr. 26-28, 2018 in Marshfield, Missouri. Michael and Mother Dolores had not seen each other in forty years, since their days working in films in Hollywood. Michael’s entertainment career has continued for more than six decades, while the former actress Dolores Hart became a nun.
Other highlights of this year’s festival included the presentation of the Ella Dickey Literacy Award, presented annually in honor of Marshfield’s first librarian, Ella Dickey, who served in this capacity for more than fifty years. Six national authors are chosen every year for those contributions to the preservation of history. The first award was presented in 2002.
Michael Dante received this prestigious honor for his autobiography, Michael Dante: From Hollywood to Michael Dante Way, while Mother Dolores was feted for her autobiography, The Ear of the Heart: An Actresses’ Journey From Hollywood to Holy Vows. The other four award recipients this year were William Anderson, Ginger Alden, Carter Taylor Seaton, and Dorothy Padgett.