WEST CORNWALL—Ken Keskinen died peacefully at home on Dec. 31, 2011. A teacher and writer, he was 88. Ken was born Dec. 13, 1923, in the Finnish-American community of New York Mills, Minn., the son of the late Martha (Maki) and John Keskinen. During World War II he served as a Navy electronic technician in the Pacific. At Columbia University he earned an MA in English, and he married Margaret Potter Keskinen in 1953. For 20 years, Ken taught English at George School, a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, Penn. Beloved by students, he also chaired the English department, taught folk dancing and led international workcamps, drawing on his own experience helping repair flood damage in Holland in 1953. During this time, Ken and Peg raised two daughters and hosted an Ethiopian student who became a lifelong friend. They also spent summers at their cabin in Cornwall, where Ken became known for his wit, his theatrical and woodworking skills, and his style on local tennis courts. When the Keskinens became year-round residents in 1976, Ken worked at the Marvelwood School, serving as director of studies and teaching English. He also chaired Cornwall’s Democratic Town Committee for several years. Although he retired from Marvelwood in 1990, Ken took a broad view of the word “retirement.” An advocate for affordable housing, he was an early leader of the Cornwall Housing Corporation, serving as its president while Kugeman Village was built, and representing Cornwall on the Northwestern Connecticut Regional Housing Council. During the 1990s he also taught at the Taconic Learning Center, worked with prisoners through the Alternatives to Violence program, and often edited the Cornwall Chronicle. As a justice of the peace, he married many local couples. He served several years on the Planning and Zoning Commission and one term as Cornwall selectman. Known by some as the Bard of Cornwall, Ken wrote dozens of poems for community events, donning a bowler hat to read his odes aloud. He published two poetry chapbooks, “Iron Roses” and “Holy Ground.” In his later years he became known for his artwork incorporating found objects. One of these, a pig fashioned from a flattened tin can, won Cornwall’s coveted Art at the Dump award in 2006. He is survived by his wife, Peg Keskinen; his daughters, Lisa and Mindy Keskinen and her husband, Peter Hendrickson; a sister, Amy (Keskinen) Holter; a brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Bob and Ginny Potter; and many loving nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by a brother, Ervin Keskinen; and a sister, Helen Keskinen Veigel.Plans for a memorial service will be announced shortly. Arrangements are under the care of the Kenny Funeral Home in Sharon. Memorial donations may be made to the Cornwall Housing Corporation, PO Box 174, Cornwall, CT 06753.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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