About me.
I am the first born
of 24 first cousins. My mother’s parents [Ricca –
Quarelli] were from Italy. My father’s parents [O’Donnell - Dougherty]
were from Ireland. A small Sicilian fishing village in California,
Monterey, is where I grew up.
In 1959 I graduated from college and my father gave me a round trip airplane ticket to Washington DC, $100, one night hotel reservation, a hug and ‘come back any time you want.’ In 1935 my father had been given a similar college graduation present from his father. He remembered walking from the Capitol to Lincoln Memorial. So I did as well. Sunday. August. Washington DC. White high heels, nylons, girdle, white gloves, pill box hat, mid-calf black and white checked dress with 3” red plastic belt.
My strategy was to accept every secretarial job offer and decide at the end of the week if I wanted to stay in Washington. On Friday morning I entered Senator Richard Nixon’s office. No jobs available, but I was encouraged by the Nixon receptionist to inquire across the hall. Senator John F. Kennedy was rumored to be considering running for President and might be hiring. I didn’t know who Kennedy was. Kennedy’s Administrative Assistant welcomed me, said the receptionist was out sick and asked if I could sit down immediately and answer the ringing phones. For the next four years I worked for Kennedy in the Senate, Presidential campaign, transition and White House. My boss was Harris Wofford. His responsibility was civil rights issues. On October 30, 1961 I was in the audience at Howard University for the ‘debate’ between Malcolm X and Bayard Rustin. On August 28, 1963, my husband and I walked in the I Have A Dream march. On January 20, 2009 my family was on the Mall for the Inauguration of Barack Obama.
As I look back I realize that my interests are personal and local. In 1969 I received an MA in Cultural Anthropology from George Washington University. My thesis was about the relationship between Black household workers and white housewives in Washington, DC. My interviews were in 1968. As a National Park Service Park Ranger in Resources Management in Rock Creek Park for 17 years, I made a voucher collection of the plants in Rock Creek Park and the other National Park Service lands in Washington, DC. The specimens are at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, in the D.C. Herbarium in the Botany Department.
Since 1988 I am a photographer. For many years I was a member of Multiple Exposures Gallery in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia. As a result of the CROWN ME! photography project about the Capital Pool Checker Players, I enrolled in the Communications Department at American University to learn documentary filmmaking. Current events are my interests.
I live in Washington DC with my husband, Pat. We have two children, Jennifer and Sam, and two grandchildren, Lila and DEV.
How do I describe myself? Fortunate!
To contact me, please click here.