Carson McCullers came to Nyack in 1945 to convalesce and create. For 22 years she found a place to do both, completing The Member of the Wedding, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Clock Without Hands. On September 29, 1967, her heart and vascular system, weakened by a litany of ailments and the strain from the kind of despondency that often afflicts great artists, finally surrendered.