Partner Virginia Weisel
Queer Places:
410 Plum Tree Ct, Sonoma, CA 95476
Lake View Cemetery
Seattle, King County, Washington, USA
Aurilla Marie Doerner (August 1, 1932 - July 9, 1996) was the daughter of Rudolph Peter Doerner and Aurilla M. Doerner.
The Kiln, a ceramic establishment in Bellevue, was owned and operated by a lesbian couple, Virginia Weisel and her life partner, Aurilla Doerner. The women had been together for nearly ten years before establishing their own business where Virginia, a seasoned ceramic artist, was in charge of production and "Rilla" provided the financial stability for their success. They offered classes through the studio and participated in all the region's finest crafts exhinitions.
Virginia reentered the military in the 1950s and served as an area crafts supervisor, Special Services, in Ascom City, South Korea. During this time, she began a relationship with another service member whom she met through the Red Cross, Aurilla Marie Doerner, who was originally from San Francisco. The two women moved to Oakland in 1963, but returned to the Seattle area in 1967. While Virginia pursued her ceramic production, Rilla created a sound financial base for the couple by working for Nordstrom's department store and becoming a successful insurance professional with Mutual of Omaha.
Because of Rilla's sound financial investments, the two women were able to move in 1982 to Sonoma, California, where they built a house with a studio large enough to accommodate Virginia's sculpting. In 1996, after suffering from health problems, Rilla shockingly ended her own life, resulting in Virginia falling into a deep depression that put an end to her artistic output.
Virginia spent the final three decades of her life in Sonoma, CA, where she died on June 28, 2017 at the age of 94. At Virginia's request, she was cremated, with half her ashes buried along with her family at Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle. The remaining ashes were scattered on Puget Sound, where Rilla's ashes had been released after her death. Her friends and family released her remains at Three Tree Point on August 3, 2018, with a vodka toast to a life well lived.
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