Garrison Keillor Tickets

Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward Keillor is a well known author, storyteller, columnist, musician, humorist, satirist and most noticeably a radio show host with international acclaim. Gary Edward Keillor hosts his radio show from Minnesota by the name of A Prairie Home Companion. The same show aired in Britain by the name of Garrison Keillor's Radio Show.

Biography and personal life
Keillor was born in a small town called Anoka in the state of Minnesota. Like many of the small towns in Minnesota, the local community has been deep rooted in the Christian faith. His father was a postal worker and worked as a part time carpenter to ensure that both ends meet and his mother was a house wife busy in raising the family.

His family was affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren a very fundamental Christian denomination that has its strong footings in Minnesota. Gary has changed different denominations over the course of his life becoming a Lutheran and now an Episcopalian. His religious affiliation has had a great impact on life and his music.

Belonging from Minnesota he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor degree in English in 1966 and was active member of the student operation radio station known now as Radio K.

Marriage
Over the course of his early life, he has been married several times. his first marriage was with Mary Guntzel from 1965 to 1976. only one son came from the marriage and was born in 1969. and then the second marriage took place with Ulla Skaerved who was an exchange student from Denmark at the high school that Gary went to as a teenager.

They had met again during a reunion many years later and were married between 1985 and 1990. Between his first two marriages he was also romantically involved with Margaret Moos, who worked as a producer of A Prairie Home Companion.

His third marriage was with the famous violinist Jenny Lind Nilsson who also was from Anoka. The couple has one daughter, Maia, who was born in 1997.

The Keillors maintain homes on the Upper West Side of New York City and in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Professional Career
Garry's radio career began in November 1969 when he joined the Minnesota Educational Radio (MER) and was responsible for the distribution of programs under the American Public Media brand. He finally got an opportunity to host the 6 am to 9 am timeslot calling it the "A Prairie Home Entertainment".

During the same timeframe, during the same timeframe, Gary was actively pursuing his passion of writing and submitting his stories to different international and national magazines. Finally, his first story "Local Family Keeps Son Happy," appeared September 19, 1970 of the New Yorker.

In 1971, Gary resigned from the morning program in protest of the unnecessary interference from management. A few months later, the morning program was given back to Gary with the new name of Prairie Home Companion.

During an assignment in 1973 about the Grand Ole Opry, he realized that the local musicians require a permanent platform to introduce their music and lyrics to the community of people. This idea floated around for a while before Gary decided to create a night show for the musicians from all spheres of life.

His afterthought finally got turned into reality on July 6, 1974. instead of the 6 am to 9 am slot, Gary was now introducing a completely revamped "A Prairie Home Companion" show featuring guest musicians and a cadre cast doing musical numbers and comic skits replete with elaborate live sound effects. initially, the show was supported by local sponsors and regional corporations and later came to limelight to be supported by national corporations.

After the show's intermission, Keillor reads clever and often humorous greetings to friends and family at home submitted by members of the theater audience, in exchange for an honorarium. Also in the second half of the show, the broadcasts showcase a weekly monologue by Keillor entitled News from Lake Wobegon, based in part on Keillor's own hometown of Anoka, Minnesota.

Gary had all intentions of creating a humorous tone to his newly created talk show. The show ran extremely successfully till late 1987 when Gary finally decided to wrap the show up and move on to other exciting challenges.

Gary created and hosted another radio program called "The American Radio Company of the Air" which was very identical to the previous program. Gary took this radio talk show on air for the next several years. In 1993, Gary went back to the original program that made him famous around the community.

Gary has also been actively involved as a host of the Writers Almanac which is also supported and distributed by the American Public Media.