Voice of the Mountains: Jeanne Robert Foster

A neighbor wryly commented what a pity it was that the little girl was so homely; the young child took it as the truth. Born in the middle of the Adirondacks on a stormy March night, she wasn't supposed to live to childhood. Yet Julie, later Jeanne Robert Foster, went on to become a model for Charles Dana Gibson and Harrison Fisher! Her face graced Vanity Fair. She wielded a pen as writer, reporter, poet and editor. She was an art agent who traveled the world to collect modern art for New York attorney and art collector John Quinn, making her an unofficial ambassador for the United States as she explored Europe. She was always a goodwill ambassador for her beloved Adirondacks and her neighbors of yesterday from the Great North Woods.
This one-person show features singer/storyteller Eileen Egan Mack who portrays Jeanne, weaving stories, songs, and readings into an enthralling program, transporting listeners to another place, another piece of time. Eileen has brought Jeanne to life in schools, libraries, theaters, and town halls across the Adirondacks and from Austin, Texas to Dublin, Ireland. The program reveals an extraordinary woman who lived in extraordinary times, from "hardscrabble" days in the Adirondacks during the late 1800's to the bustling cosmopolitan New York City of the early 20th century, Jeanne is a woman whose work and life are honored in this show. While so much of women's roles has been hidden "behind the scrim" on history's stage, this show is an opportunity to share Jeanne's light and life.
This program is a prelude to the study group on Jeanne, which Eileen will lead for A.L.L. in spring 2014. The Academy for Lifelong Learning at Saratoga Springs, sponsored by SUNY Empire State College and associated with the college’s Office of Communications and Government Relations, is a membership organization offering non-credit academic study groups, as well as social and leadership opportunities to older learners. To be added to the mail list to receive the spring brochure, call the A.L.L. office: (518) 587-2100, ext. 2415.