Davison Art Center’s Boothby Dies at Age 89

Olivia DrakeMarch 3, 20102min

Janette  Boothby, 89, formerly of Middletown, died Feb. 16 at the Seabury Retirement Community in Bloomfield, Conn. where she had been a resident for 17 years. She was employed for more than 30 years by the Art Department and the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan  as librarian and registrar of the Davison Art Center Print Collection.

She pursued other forms of artistic expression in her life, including drawing, painting, graphic design and calligraphy. She won many prizes for her watercolor paintings and was a member of several area arts organizations. After her retirement from Wesleyan, she volunteered with The Middlesex County Historical Society.

Born June 16, 1920, she grew up in Lexington, Mass. and graduated from the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She developed her talents in theater arts and photography at the Weston (Vermont) Playhouse in the summers of 1941-42. Throughout her formative years, Janette’s deep artistic nature connected her to the natural world.

She is survived by her daughter, Deborah Boothby, and son-in-law, Gary Chassman, of Burlington, Vt.; her sister, Audrey G. Jennings, and her brother-in-law, Charles Jennings of Sebastopol, Calif.; her nieces, Marcia Salera of Sebastopol, and Erica Collins of Maui, Hawaii; and her nephew, Douglas Jennings of Fort Bragg, Calif.

Memorial gifts in her honor may be made to Friends of the Davison Art Center, c/o The Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459.

More information is published in the Feb. 24 edition of The Middletown Press.