AIA Michigan History
Lilian Jackson Braun was the “Good Living” editor of The Detroit Free Press for 29 years. She is retired from journalism and is currently writing mysteries fulltime. She lives with two Siamese cats and her husband, Earl Bettinger, in North Carolina. She was born in 1916. It was during her Detroit Free Press days that she was tapped by Ann Stacy, then executive director of the Michigan Society of Architects, to research and write the history of AIA in Michigan. She has a long standing interest in and love of architecture and was awarded the 1957 Michigan Society of Architects Journalism Award and was made an Honorary Affiliate Member of AIA Detroit in 1959. She had twice before been honored by the American Institute of Architects with a First Prize in their Journalism Competition for the best feature story on an architectural subject. “Her dedication to the principles of good design are as broad as her friendliness, which apparently knows no bounds,”reads the MSA citation. Her account ends in 1977 when the Society first leased the Beaubien House for its headquarters.