Jeanne E. Knight

Obituary for Jeanne E. Knight Jeanne E. Knight, age 90, beloved and devoted Mother died April 21st, 2014. She is survived by her three children Jeanne E. Knight, Houghton C. Knight, and Eliot H. Knight of Albuquerque New Mexico, and by her brother Alastair Sellars of Newtown, CT. Jeanne Knight was born in Moretown Vermont to Frederick Moore Sellars and Jean Baird Sellars. She was a graduate of Hunter College and held a Master�s Degree from Columbia University. She taught College English and Creative Writing at Wagner College in New York and taught in several private schools in the East. She was a writer and published poet. Her poetry was published in the New York Times, Echo Mag. (Hunter Coll.), she was a member of Sigma Tau Delta (Hunter Coll., International English Honor Society), and she contributed countless letters to the editors of newspapers such as The Islander (Anna Maria Island); Sarasota Herald Tribune, The Eugene Register Guard, and other newspapers. She was listed in the International Who�s Who in Poetry 1974-75 (Fourth Edition, Ernest Kay Editor, Cambridge and London, England). During World War II, she worked drafting plans for ships for the naval architectural and marine engineering firm of H. Newton Whittelsey of Manhattan, where she met her husband Reginald C. Knight (now dec�d), a practicing architect in New York City, working at the same firm. In 1953, Reginald & Jeanne Knight moved from New York to Sarasota, Florida, and shortly after settled in Longboat Key, although Knight maintained architectural practices in both New York City as well as in Florida from 1949 - 1959. Jeanne considered Longboat Key, Florida to be her family�s true home. All of her children were born in Florida, and the imagery of the Gulf of Mexico and Longboat Key found roots in her poetry. She was a teacher who touched and transformed many lives, and was much-loved by her students. Wherever she lived, Mrs. Knight was an outspoken member of her community. She was an advocate for our U.S. Veterans, and an activist for social change and environmental protection. She cared intensely for the disadvantaged, imagined deeply the circumstances of others, and even when there seemed to be nothing that could be done, she created new ways to give her love. Graveside services will be held at Santa Fe National Cemetery.