Who is Sylvia? What is she? – Sylvia Field McKean, 88

Who is Silvia? what is she,

That all our swains commend her?

Holy, fair, and wise is she;

The heaven such grace did lend her,

That she might admir è d be.

William Shakespeare

Hanover , NH . Sylvia Field (Morse) McKean died peacefully in the company of her children at Kendal on February 1, 2016. She was born on April 23, 1927, Shakespeare ' s birthday, to Helen Ward Field Morse and Stearns Morse of Dartmouth College. She encountered life with curiosity. She was an inveterate explorer, traveling far and wide. Sylvia made, and kept, an eclectic diversity of friends from every period, place, and walk of life: designers to folktale scholars, farmers to museum curators, loggers to ballet dancers, musicians, artists, a professional gambler; each had talents, experiences, and perspectives which intrigued her.

Sylvia was raised with brothers Dick, Stephen, and Tony in Hanover, with summers on the family farm on Goose Lane, in Bath, full of learning and doing. Following Stephen ' s sudden death in 1937, the family drove to Mexico . Sylvia vividly recalled the journey and the kindness of others: the college community, neighbors, friends, and family " who surrounded us with such love. "

Sylvia graduated Hanover High in 1944, majored in Art at Smith College, graduating with honors in 1949. She launched into life in New York City with a job at McGraw-Hill Publishing. In 1952, she married mathematician Henry P. McKean, of Beverly Farms, MA. Thus began years of exploring and creating homes in varied parts of the world afforded by Henry ' s career: Cambridge, England; Princeton, NJ, where daughters Kate and Elizabeth were born; a year in Kyoto, Japan. In 1958, they settled in Cambridge, MA, where son Tom was born. In 1966, they moved to New York City. Years there were interspersed with residencies in Israel, Kenya, and England, travels in Europe, Scandinavia and Russia.

Svlvia was mother and homemaker first. She was active in education and the arts, as co-founder of a nursery school, as volunteer exhibition and administrative assistant to curators at The American Museum of Natural History and The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and as a GED tutor at The Fortune Society, a non-profit organization which promotes successful reentry from and alternatives to incarceration, perhaps the most rewarding of all her New York experiences.

In 1961, Sylvia and Henry built a house in Landaff, NH, which reflected their complementary taste, skills, and artistry. Summers there passed on the pleasures of her childhood to new generations: family gatherings, climbing the White Mountains, swimming, and riding for miles, with bearhound, Hobbit, alongside. Games were a delight, from crossword puzzles to complex solitaires, the dictionary game and elaborate charades.

Sylvia was the ultimate hostess. She practiced homemaking as an art. Cooking was one of her great talents, from bread to ratatouille, shish kebab to tempura. She would tackle anything: candle-making, maple syrup, tanning a sheepskin. Hand-made costumes, paper snowflakes, and Victorian Valentines marked the holidays, and no birthday party was complete without a spider web string maze. She also kept an extensive vegetable garden, tailored, knitted and quilted.

She was a voracious reader: from Shakespeare to Joyce, mysteries to natural sciences, ancient history to contemporary politics and culture. She read aloud, to her children every night, to her grandchildren, and at the end, even when her own words failed her, to fellow memory wing residents, still capable of great verve and expression.

Post-divorce in 1988, Sylvia reestablished herself in NH. Serving her community, and active in good health, she continued to travel widely. A lifelong appreciator and supporter of the performing and visual arts, from classical to avant-garde, Sylvia enjoyed all the North Country has to offer, with regular jaunts to NYC, all in the company of old and new friends.

In recent years, Sylvia lived and struggled with the challenges and losses of dementia. She strove to understand, as always, her mind, her perceptions and feelings, her connection to others and to place. Despite moments of great anguish, as memories and images became jumbled and words eluded her, her reflective conversation revealed glimpses of deep understanding.

In the image of a moose, walking without a care over the garden fence, she captured her own yearning for the freedom and ease she once had with words and with the world: " He is big, and we like him, and he does not care where he goes. "

Onward!, she would say.

Sylvia ' s family is grateful to Peggy Cole and Diana Forbes, devoted helpers who became true friends, for their loving care.

Sylvia is survived by her children, Katherine McKean and husband Eric Schwartz, grandchildren Hope and Isaac, of CA; Elizabeth McKean of NH; Tom and wife Lisa, grandchildren Rebekah and Leah, of Scotland; her brother, Stearns Anthony (Tony) and wife Dorothy Morse, of MA; by a close extended family of Morse and McKean nieces and nephews, Field cousins, and their families; and by former husband Henry McKean, of NYC. Last, but not least, Sylvia is survived by her beloved Kitty, Huckleberry.

A committal and memorial service will be held in NH on July 30.

Donations in Sylvia ' s memory may be made to organizations she supported :