Role model for family and friends who wore many hats
MELROSE — Jacqueline Taylor Wattenberg died peacefully November 12 in her Melrose home just shy of 102 years.
A linchpin and role model for family and friends, she wore many hats: social-justice and anti-war activist; arts and restaurant critic; voice and writing teacher; slice-of-life essayist; performer of song and drama; fan of actual quirky hats (berets to wooly-knits). A devoted mother and full partner in marriage, she brought creativity, commitment, humor and character to her family. A Julliard graduate who believed anyone could sing, she willed people who’d never sung a note to produce lovely tones.
A native of Buffalo, Jackie launched her writing career at age 27 as art and music critic at the Buffalo Evening News where she met her husband Morris Wattenberg. Her free-lance articles appeared in the Oak Leaves (Oak Park, IL), Melrose Free Press, Melrose Mirror, Chicago Daily News and the Buffalo News. She and her husband self-published Chicago’s Domino Page magazine (1980’s). Among her arts credits: Marshall Field’s Choral Society and MacDowell Society performances; Showboat’s Julie and title role in The Typist (community theater); Melrose’s Beethoven Society’s program co-chair.
As advocate, she started a reading school for low-income teens at Chicago’s Third Unitarian Church (1970’s); conducted theater programs for high-schoolers (1960s); self-published We’ve Got to Stop our Wars–or Else! (2008); wrote and directed local plays for peace; and engaged in Unitarian-Universalist social-justice programs. She taught writing into her 90’s, most recently at Malden Senior Center. She sang all her life. Her final years were profoundly enhanced by Mystic Valley Elder Services; Metropolitan Home Health Services’ extraordinary care team including emigrees from Haiti, Kenya and Ethiopia who shared their values of family, education and spirit; Tufts Medicine Care at Home; thoughtful medical providers at Tufts, Brigham and MGH; and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ elder supports.
Jackie/‘Bebe’ will be missed by daughter Melissa Wattenberg and son-in-law Ric Amante, Melrose; daughter Valerie Wattenberg, Brooklyn and partner Julian Plested; grandson Vincent Ularich and grand-daughter-in-law Kelley Holley, Rochester, NY; generations of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Among those gone before her husband Morris; parents Martha (Gnossa) and William P. Taylor; sister Lois Ward and husband Elmer, Santa Ana, CA; brother William Taylor and wife Evelyn, Paradise, CA.
Services to be held at First Parish in Malden, Unitarian Universalist, 2 Elm St. on Sunday, December 1, Reflection on her Life gathering at 2:30 p.m., service at 3 p.m. and memories/reception after. Saturday, January 11, Celebration of Life, Sanctuary Service at 3 p.m. followed by reception.
