The Lakeville Journal - January 12, 2012

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Joan H. Wallace

LAKEVILLE — Joan H. Wallace, artist, political activist, and long-time resident of New York City and the Northwest Corner died at home in Lakeville, at age 93, on Oct. 30, 2024.

Ms. Wallace, née Joan Elaine Hochstuhl, was born in 1931, the daughter of Elsie Wibben and Ernest Hochstuhl, both the offspring of German immigrants. Much of her childhood was spent in Syosset, Long Island with a couple of years in the Adirondack town of Bloomingdale where she sought relief from severe childhood asthma. She attended secondary school at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York, and received an associate degree from Lasell College.

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Getting the upper hand on mighty phragmites

Phragmites australis australis in North Canaan.

John Coston

Finally rain. For weeks, the only place there had been moisture was in the marsh and even there, areas that usually catch my boots in the mud were dry. I could not see the footprints of the bear (or is it deer?) that have been digging up and eating the underground skunk cabbage flowers. Not that I could do anything to stop it. A layer of snow that actually sticks around for a while seems like wishful thinking these days.

Masses of skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, appeared one spring, like magic, after we hired a team to remove the barberry from about an acre of the marsh adjacent to the driveway. Of course, it had been there all along, waiting patiently underground or hiding in the barberry’s thorny shrub-cages, but we had not seen it. That was about eight years ago; after the barberry’s removal there have been successive infestations of invasives but also, as with the skunk cabbage, some welcome new sightings of native plants.

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'Cornwall reads Cornwall' returns

Roxana Robinson reads Cornwall, Nov. 30.

Natalia Zukerman

Bob Meyers, President and Publisher of the Cornwall Chronicle, kicked off the 5th annual Cornwall Reads Cornwall event at the UCC in Cornwall on Nov. 30 with a warm welcome and a gentle reminder to silence cell phones. Over the next hour, the audience was transported back in time as local writers, editors, luminaries, and students brought the Chronicle’s archives to life.

“This reading has become an annual event,” said Meyers, “as well as a welcome distraction from Thanksgiving leftovers.” He then noted that the event “was the original brainchild of Roxana Robinson.” Meyers added, “She also arranged to have this take place on the day of her birth,” at which point the audience wished the celebrated local author a happy birthday.

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