Our dear Laura succumbed to a stroke on October 18, 2020. She was eighty-nine years old.
Laura was an artist and jeweler. Her work as an artist not only defined her career, in which her paintings, collages, and jewelry were shown in galleries in New York, Washington D.C., and Seattle, but shaped all aspects of her life and relationships.
She was born in New York City on April 6, 1931. She attended the High School of Music and Art, and later received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland. Laura had three children with her first husband. They raised their family in Washington D.C. and in the nineteen sixties they moved abroad for four years to both Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and London, England.
In the early seventies Laura met her husband, Michael Phillips, and moved to the West Coast. She and Michael moved from California to Port Townsend in 1984. Their shared life in Port Townsend was devoted to their work as artists. Port Townsend proved an ideal community for making art, building friendships, and being surrounded by beauty.
Laura had many close friends in Port Townsend, as well as across the world. She would stay in touch with those who lived far away through correspondences and phone dates. If she discovered an artist she admired, she would often reach out to them to let them know how much she appreciated their work. Not uncommonly, this resulted in a long friendship.
Laura is survived by her beloved husband, Michael Phillips; her sister, Liz Secor-Woy; her three children, Janina Lamb, Jonathan Popenoe, and Josh Popenoe; her seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; and many friends.
