Garrison Keillor Announces Retirement

Beloved radio host talks about leaving the limelight

by Carol Kaufmann, AARP Bulletin, March 16, 2011 | Comments: 0

Radio host Garrison Keillor, 68, told the AARP Bulletin that he's planning to retire in the spring of 2013. But the host of A Prairie Home Companion says that he must find his replacement first. Keillor created his show in 1974 in Minnesota. It is now broadcast on 590 public radio stations across the country and is heard by over 4 million people each week.

Tim Knox/Eyevine/Redux

Garrison Keillor.

In an interview with the Bulletin's online books column, The Author Speaks, Keillor discussed his latest project, an anthology of poems titled Good Poems: American Places, elaborated on his love of poetry, his impressions of America, his legacy, dreams for the future — and on his views on stepping down from the limelight

"When I was younger, I was all in favor of it, and now that I'm at that age, I'm not sure," he explained. "I sure don't want to make a fool of myself and be singing romantic duets with 25-year-old women when I'm 75. But on the other hand, it's so much fun. And in radio, the lighting is right."

Carol Kaufmann is a contributing editor at the AARP Bulletin.