Doris Sewell Jackson (1925 – April 16, 2012), "Sewelly," as she was
known to her friends, was resourceful, strong willed, creative and
self-reliant. Her adventurous life took her to many places and people. Husband David Jackson, partner Lynn M. Roth, buried together
Queer Places:
Evergreen Cemetery, 345 N Main St, Stonington, CT 06378, Stati Uniti
Doris Sewell Jackson (1925 – April 16, 2012), "Sewelly," as she was
known to her friends, was resourceful, strong willed, creative and
self-reliant. Her adventurous life took her to many places and people.
She was raised in Burlingame, Calif., the daughter of Bruce and Kathryn Sewell. Outgoing and with many friends, she described teaching herself, at age 15, how to smoke in front of a mirror before trying, with less success, to teach her mother to smoke. Later, during the war years, she maintained engagements to several young soldiers in order to "give them hope."
Soon after the war, she married David Jackson. The newlywed couple moved to Europe for a year and a half, living in France, Switzerland and Germany. He worked in the post-war reconstruction and she as a designer. They hitchhiked to Norway and Italy, skied in the Alps and persuaded her Swiss landlord to host an American Barn Dance. She was invited to show her paintings in Munich in Oct. 1949. In Paris, she apparently engaged Ernest Hemingway in a fractious discussion that led to his suggestion that "If you were a man, I'd knock your head off."
After she and David separated, she returned to California to attend the Art Center, in Los Angeles. There she met George Wright, who became a lifelong friend. They worked together in New York City as graphic artists designing advertising, wallpaper, and textiles. Her work led her to clients in New England and a year on Martha's Vineyard. When she moved to the Stonington area, thanks to her continuing friendship with David Jackson, she became a close member of the literary scene at James Merrill's house. In time, she moved to Noank with her friend Lynn M. Roth, and later to Mystic.
Sewelly had an orderly and graphic sense of design, and a true collector's eye. Her house was decorated with painted objects in warm and muscular earth tones, each demanding inspection but all working together, large and small, crude and refined, geometric, floral, whimsical.
She died at The Westerly Nursing Home on April 16, 2012, of esophageal cancer.
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Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington, CT
She is buried near her companion, Lynn M. Roth, and behind David Jackson and James Merrill.
My published books:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145585528/doris-jackson