Marcy Von Kohorn
Marcella (Marcy) Von Kohorn passed away on June 20, 2023, in Vero Beach at the age of 97. She was an active member of the Vero Beach Branch, Florida, since 2005. She served as membership chair for many years. Her membership was in poetry and art. Many of our branch meetings took place in the meeting room of her condo in The Moorings. Our members have fond memories of those times.
In 1987, Marcy and husband Henry moved to Vero Beach from Greenwich, Connecticut. Marcy loved to paint, specializing in Chinese brush work. Over the years, she sold her work at numerous shows and galleries in the Vero Beach area. Every year, she made holiday cards, featuring one of her paintings on the front and an original poem inside.
In 2022, Marcy had a one-person show in Vero Beach. This past January 2023, Vero Beach Magazine published a feature story titled “The Art of Aging Gracefully” about Marcy, her paintings, and her recently produced memoir.
— Submitted by Mary Jane Ingui, Branch President
Cyndi Marble
Cyndi Marble passed away at the age of 76. She was an arts member of the Atlanta Branch.
Cyndi Marble was born and raised in eastern Massachusetts, the beautiful Cape Cod area. She was a Mayflower descendant. Due to her husband’s careers with the U.S. Navy and Coca-Cola, she also lived in Virginia and New York, then returned to Massachusetts and finally moved to Gwinnett County, Georgia.
She earned a bachelor’s of fine arts in textile design at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and also took classes in education. She studied ceramics later and became involved in the local art scene, where she became friends with several major artists, including Steffen Thomas and Dale Rayburn.
Cyndi learned her love of animals as a youngster, when her family raised cattle, sheep and other farm animals. She was very active in 4-H projects. She also loved and cared for many cats during her life — any stray that came their way was taken in, loved and taken care of.
On their 20thanniversary, she and Sam took a trip to New Mexico, where she fell in love with Native American jewelry and pottery. In the 1990s, she became interested in using pastels. She was a member of Excellence in the Southeastern Pastel Society (president for two terms) and the Alabama Pastel Society, and a juried member of Degas Pastel Society. She was also juried into the Pastel Society of America and International Association of Pastel Societies (with 2 points toward Members’ Circle).
Cyndi received Best in Show at the 2014 Georgia National Fair Art competition and the Cover Award for the Birmingham Art Journal 2018 issue. She studied pastels with such famous artists as Dawn Emerson, Casey Klahn, Margaret Dyer, Richard McKinley, and Sally Strand. Cyndy’s paintings were represented in The Juniper General Store gallery in Ocala, Florida, where her work gained many fans. Her wonderfully colorful pastel paintings of people, horses, cats, dogs, and other farm animals won many awards and recognition all over the United States. She also loved gathering exotic beads and other interesting items that caught her eye and made them into fabulous jewelry.
When she came to a Pen Women meeting in Atlanta as a guest of mine, another fabulous artist Pen Woman, Rosemary Dodd (who also recently passed away), walked into the room where we were having our monthly luncheon meeting. Rosemary was wearing several streaks of different colors sprayed into her hair, and Cyndy leaned over to whisper into my ear, “If she’s a member of this group, I want to be one too!” And that’s how she became a Pen Woman.
She loved her collection of Native American jewelry and she never left home without wearing several pieces. Cyndi was always dressed as a master’s painting! What an amazing artist she was and a very dear friend. She and Rosemary are probably getting together some great ideas up there in heaven. I know she’s also happy to see her much-loved kitties who preceded her across the Rainbow Bridge.
—Submitted by Mikki Root Dillon, Atlanta Branch
Mary Lou Taylor
Mary Lou Taylor, 93, passed away June 10, 2023, in Saratoga, California. She was an active member of the Santa Clara County Branch in letters for 22 years, and for 37 years served at the Poetry Center San Jose in numerous capacities, including two terms as president.
Mary Lou was a poet, author, friend, and mentor to many, especially her high school students during her teaching years.
Throughout her years of writing poetry, she received honors, awards, and invitations to recite, and many evenings she would spend her time reciting at an open mic. Her love of poetry became contagious to those of us who would listen intently and feel the emotions as she would recite from the pages of her books. She had the ability to weave her past experiences into well-crafted poetry. Every poem was a snapshot from her life.
I spent many hours driving Mary Lou and other Pen Women to meetings and events. I loved listening to the conversations of ladies who had been Pen Women much longer than I, but the times I took only Mary Lou — just the two of us — on her speaking engagements was delightful. Sometimes she would hum or sing or make poignant comments. One time, when we were traveling at interstate speed between two giant trucks, she noted, “Oops, I think we are a sandwich.” I will always remember her quick wit and skillful observation.
She started writing poetry when she was 8 years old and never stopped. She has authored four poetry books. She received her inspiration for writing “Bringing Home the Moon” during her residency at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California. Her most recent book, “Still, The Magnolia,” was released two weeks after she passed away. Even when her hands could no longer write or type, she would dictate her words to a helper who would write them down. She was a poet for life and an inspiration to all of us who knew and loved her.
—Submitted by Luanna K. Leisure
Wings
By Mary Lou Taylor
The urge to copy birds
began at three
when I leaped
from the flaking banister
of our apartment building
first floor
arms extended
no cape needed
I was so sure I could fly.
I was a child
with a small plot of green
in the asphalt of apartments
where a hundred families lived
that little spot my sanctuary.
Covered in winter by unspoiled snow
angels appeared, wings and gown
outstretched in perfect patterns.
Judith McGinn, Central New York Branch Past President
Although we came together for a “celebration of life” in honor of Judith McGinn on August 16, 2023, in Skaneateles, New York, it is impossible not to feel the weight of great sorrow at her loss. Born in North Carolina on April 20,, 1951, Judy was a light in our lives, a supremely talented writer, poet, and editor who gave of her time, energy, and intelligent wit to so many others.
She once owned Mallow Castle in Ireland; she had walked the Halls of Congress as a court recorder for the House of Representatives. Judy was married to Michael and had two wonderful sons, Seamus and Brendan; two grandsons, Conor and Michael; and an amazing sister, Barbara (Brooke) Mobley. She was a past president of the Skaneateles Chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and our Central New York Branch of the NLAPW. But none of those important roles in life defined her.
One of her dreams as a writer was to compile a collection of her short stories and have it published. Her fiction was published in a number of literary magazines, including The South Carolina Review, Earth Care, and in Lun’ Allure. Her story “Throne of the Third Heaven,” is nothing short of a masterpiece of short fiction.
Working against time itself, she pulled the collection together even as she struggled with her cancer. But Judy had long engendered loyalty, and a team of Pen Women and her friends at Clare Songbirds Publishing House in Auburn, New York, worked to make her last dream a reality. In this remarkable collection of stories, Judith shows her mastery of the genre.
Former Pen Woman and Clare Songbirds Associate Editor Rachael Ikins was instrumental in seeing Judy’s book, “Rising Up on Ordinary Days,” through the final stages of editing. Publisher and editor Heidi Nightengale and Director of Operations Laura Williams French pulled in every favor, every string, and put in long hours to make sure a physical copy of Judy’s book was in her hands before she passed away on August 11, 2023.
Judy asked for donations in her memory to be made to the National League of American Pen Women, Inc. Her dearest friends included her sister Brooke, her loving sons, Mary Gardner, and the members of the writers group, whom she loved.
Judy was a meticulous and powerful writer, an observer of and participant in life with a great generosity of spirit and fun. She, of course, wanted us all to laugh remembering the good times rather than sorrowing, but we shall continue to do both. Rather than death, we prefer to think of her as her character Naia in “Dreams in Deep Water,” in which she “gathers her strength and with a powerful swish of her caudal fin, disappears into the deep.”
—Submitted by Nancy Dafoe
Irene Sedeora
Irene Sedeora, a member-at-large, died on July 10, 2023. She was a talented artist and writer who won several awards for her work. Read more in her online obituary.