She married Kilburn Durham, a field representative for Social Security, in November 1950, and settled into life as a wife and mother and self-described "frumpy housewife.
The novel became a best-seller and was generally praised by reviewers for its deft character studies as well as its effortlessly entertaining style.
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing starred Burt Reynolds and British actress Sarah Miles.
[7] Durham followed up the success of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing with another character-driven Western novel, Dutch Uncle, which was published by Harcourt in 1973.
Based on the success of Cat Dancing, the movie rights to the book had been committed before Durham had completed writing it, but the studio ultimately declined to make the film.
Flambard's Confession is a work of historical fiction and a return to her primary intellectual passion: the history of medieval England.
She was planning a novel about the Spanish King Philip II and his son, Don Carlos, when she suffered a stroke in January 2012.
[10] Durham won the fiction award of the Society of Midland Authors in 1973 for The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.