Friend Katherine Bejnar, our dear Kitty, died peacefully at home on May 1, 2021, nearly 98 years old. Her family was with her in her home. She was born on May 31, 1923 to Adelaide H. Maghee Putnam Marble and John Putnam Marble.
Kitty grew up as a Quaker - with dashes of other religions added in - and she wrote a Quaker autobiography in her inimitable wry and forthright style. We include a few excerpts in this minute.
Reuben Laznovsky, a.k.a., Hersh, died on January 3, 2020, at his home in Santa Fe, NM. Reuben was born to immigrant Jewish parents in New York, NY on December 9,1927. Laznovsky was his paternal family name, but it was changed to Hersh after the family immigrated. Late in his life Reuben began introducing himself as Reuben Laznovsky, as a way to honor his earlier ancestors.
Phyllis Hoge was born on November 15, 1926 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, one of three daughters of Philip Barlow Hoge and Dorothy Morgan Anderson. She grew up with her sisters, Eleanor and Langley, in New Jersey and Rhode Island. Her love of words and poetry started early in life, fortified by her mother’s reading poetry aloud to her and then “putting the right books into my hands while I was still very young” and taking her to poetry readings. Phyllis was also fortunate that her early schooling provided more food for her poetic appetite.
Ruth Corwin Meyer, a birthright Friend, died May 11, 2017, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Born September 21, 1933, in Rochester, New York, she was the only child of Elizabeth and George Corwin, founders of the Wilton Connecticut Monthly Meeting. Ruth began piano lessons in grade school with a teacher who told her parents she had no aptitude. Fortunately they found a more insightful teacher.
John Felton Gibbons was born on 6 October 1937 in Bauxite, Arkansas. His parents were George C. Gibbons, a metallurgical engineer at the local Bauxite Mine, and Anne Donor Gibbons. This background gave John his calling as a geologist which he taught, researched and explored all his life.
Patricia Lou (“Pat”) Kutzner passed away on December 8, 2015. She was 85 years old. She was born January 27, 1930 in Billings, Montana to Clyde Mondelle Kutzner (d. 1939) and Nelle B. Pearson (d. 1962). She was predeceased by her sister Marjorie Ellen Kutzner (d. 2002) and Donald Frederick Kutzner (d. 1996). She is survived by two second cousins, Cindie Selboe(Salt Lake City, UT) and Patricia Vasconcellos (Longmont, CO).
We lost our dear Friend, Beverly Cotton, on July 25th, 2015. She never regained consciousness after an emergency surgery on July 9 and passed away quietly with her sister and nephew at her bedside. Bev was a bigger than life figure, a born leader who possessed a unique spirit and will be missed by those who loved her and whose lives she deeply touched.
How lovely
Through torn paper window
The Milky Way.
Kobayashi Issa, translated by Nanao Sakaki
Cynthia Hye was born on June 7, 1933, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She grew up, was educated, and raised her three children there. She worked for AT&T, where she became one of their super sales-women, traveling throughout the U.S. Cynthia came to New Mexico and the Albuquerque Monthly Meeting (AMM) from New Jersey. Cynthia found her sobriety through AA in 1976, and continued that important connection throughout her life. Following a diagnosis of cancer, Cynthia chose not to undergo treatment and lived her last year fully until her death on April 24, 2012, in Albuquerque.
