“True Friends,” an exhibition of works by Nancy Waller (1918-2017) dedicated to her close friend, Ellen St. John (1925-2023), opened on Friday, March 10 at The Art Garage. The show is intended to help build awareness of, and raise funds for, the new Ellen St. John Peacemaker Award. This award will be given annually to a graduating Cooperstown Central School student who is recognized as a peacemaker by the school community. Funds will be managed by the Friends Fiduciary, a Quaker investment firm. Donations will also be accepted.
St. John’s many friends include Deborah Dickinson, one of the driving forces behind establishing the award. “The hope is to keep her loving, creative spirit alive by investing in young people who show their own capacity for creating possibilities for peaceful solutions to conflict in school and the wider community—and who plan to continue with peacemaking efforts in the future.”
ART EXHIBIT—11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The public is invited to view “True Friends: Nancy Waller Art for the Ellen St John Peacemaker Award,” a potpourri of watercolors and silk screens, some framed. Proceeds benefit the award. The Art Garage, 689 Beaver Meadow Road, Cooperstown. (315) 941-9607 or visit facebook.com/TheArtGarageCooperstown/
COOPERSTOWN – Nancy Waller, world-traveler, advocate for peace, social justice and prison reform, lifelong writer and artist, died peacefully Jan. 10, 2017, at the Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home, Cooperstown, her three daughters and pastor at her side. She was 98.
Born Anne Bigelow Thomson in Nanking, China, Nancy was a daughter of James Claude Thomson and Margaret Seabury Cook Thomson. She grew up in pre-Communist China.
Her father, a biochemist, was head of the Chemistry Department at the University of Nanking, one of several Christian colleges established in the early 20th century to educate China’s “best and brightest.”
Her mother, a Smith College alumna, taught literature there; she also advised their neighbor, whom Nancy knew as “Aunt Pearl,” on a manuscript that was published as “The Good Earth.” Aunt Pearl was of course Pearl Buck.
Nancy Waller, who passed away yesterday at age 98, with her husband Jerry, who died at 96 in 2013.
COOPERSTOWN – Nancy Waller, 98, of Roseboom, author, mother and beloved member of the greater Cooperstown community, died peacefully Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 10, 2017, at the Thanksgiving Home with her daughters and minister at her side.
A Service to the Glory of God and in Thanksgiving for the Life of Nancy Waller will be offered at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017 at her church, the First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown.
