Arts Listings

Remembering Dorothy Vance

By Roger Moss
Friday April 06, 2007

Dorothy Vance (called Dotty by her childhood friends in Colorado and Dart by her Berkeley friends), radical, anti-nuclear protester and jailbird, rebel girl and woman for peace, vegetarian, feminist, champion of the poor and foe of the powerful, resident of Berkeley for 50 years, and of the Elmwood for 35, friend extraordinaire, mother of three and grandmother of four, the best sister in the world, sociologist and college teacher, librarian, early receptionist for KPFA back in the days when it was upstairs over Edy’s on Shattuck, former drunk and smoker to the end, assertive yet modest and self-effacing, breadmaker, playwright and short story writer, graphic artist, potter and tile maker, creator of award-winning appliqué quilts of great good humor, some on historical, political or cultural themes, others simply whimsical, fundamentally dubious about labels and categories such as those above, died in her home on Russell Street in late February. She was 76. 

Upon being told that she wanted no memorial service or obituary, her friends and family all said, “That sounds just like her.” 

 

—Roger Moss, Dorothy’s brother 

 

Image: Detail from a nine-panel quilt of original limericks titled There Was An Old Man, made by Dorothy Vance in 1995.