Marlene Habib

Marlene Habib had big things on her family plate when she was a little girl. Born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan - I'm sure you all know where that is in Western Canada - Marlene is the eldest girl of 14 children born to Lebanese immigrant parents. Yes, 14 children - 7 boys and 7 girls, so you can't say the Habibs didn't believe in family planning. A sort of mini-mom to her younger siblings, Marlene adopted a love of writing, sports and music - the Beatles, David Cassidy and David Bowie in particular - as an escape to her own world, a world that led her to her dream of becoming a sportswriter at first. She graduated from journalism school at Ryerson in Toronto, and quickly was hired by Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, before moving on to a 23-year career at a national wire service. During those years, she became an entertainment and lifestyles expert, interviewing everyone from Mr. Cassidy, to Ringo Starr, Donny Osmond, Olivia Newton-John, Cindy Crawford, Kenny G, Meat Loaf and other big names in the biz. Over time, Marlene's news chops kicked in, and she turned her journalism adventures to covering everything from politics, to health and medicine, and business. In the last 15 years, Marlene also earned her fitness training certification, and has been running exercise boot camps and doing personal training ever since because she believes that health is wealth. Still building on her journalism career, though, her skills moved to editing, for Canada's public broadcaster the CBC, during which one of the biggest popstars in the world at one time, David Cassidy, passed away suddenly at age 67 on of all days, her birthday in 2017: Nov. 21. It was as if a part of her childhood disappeared - she felt she had to do something to honour one of her idols, so she jumped at the idea of writing her first book, on Mr. Cassidy's love of horses, a lesser-known but big aspect of the acting and singing superstar's life. Marlene's first book, "David Cassidy: Crazy Over You in Saratoga," was published in May 2018, and there are two editions, the second of which takes readers through the entire year after his passing. Marlene's focused on several projects to keep Mr. Cassidy's legacy alive, including working with the then owners of Casa De Mayan, the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., mansion they bought from Mr. Cassidy in his last years, to dedicate a bronze memorial plaque that's now permanently affixed to an outside wall of the mansion that serves as a luxury rental. Marlene's second book ("David's Crazy Love of Horses: A Cassidy-Inspired Tale - a special boy's rockstar life comes full circle to his real joy) was published April 12, 2020, to mark what would have been the former Partridge Family star's 70th birthday, and aims to get the younger generation as crazy over David Cassidy as today's parents and grandparents were over the last six decades. "David's Crazy Love of Horses" is a part-reality, part-fantasy story for kids and grownups alike, and is beautifully illustrated by Windsor, Ont., artist Roy G. James. During the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020, Marlene used periods of isolation to channel her creativity further for her third book on the superstar: the nearly 100-page "David Cassidy: Poetry for a Partridge (Half-Heaven, Half-Heartache virtual prose for an icon)" comprised of the poetry, beautifully crafted images and other posts on her David Cassidy Book social media pages. The intensely personal and artistic book went live Jan. 1, 2021, carrying the superstar's legacy that much further into the future.