Brief notes on barely-mentioned Forteans.
Which isn’t meant to denigrate these people at all; they had minor connections with the Fortean community—but their own full lives.
I can find very little early information on Jeanne Bagby, and none on Jack. The names are surprisingly common. She may have been born in New York in1927 as Jeanne Smart, and he may have really been named James, and associated with the US Navy. They may have married in the mid-1950s; she may have subsequently remarried twice, first taking the name Lippincott, later Jelliffe.
According to historian Amy Swerdlow, Jeanne, at least, was living in New Orleans in the mid-1950s, where she was reconstructing herself as a Beat. She was alternately lonely and ecstatic until, through intense self-therapy, she made a breakthrough. Towards the end of the decade, at least, she was involved with Beat poetry, contributing to the Memphis small magazine “River” and being interviewed by Charles Ossman for “The Sullen Art.” (There is a reel-to-reel tape of her at the University of Toledo, which may shed some light on her background.)
Which isn’t meant to denigrate these people at all; they had minor connections with the Fortean community—but their own full lives.
I can find very little early information on Jeanne Bagby, and none on Jack. The names are surprisingly common. She may have been born in New York in1927 as Jeanne Smart, and he may have really been named James, and associated with the US Navy. They may have married in the mid-1950s; she may have subsequently remarried twice, first taking the name Lippincott, later Jelliffe.
According to historian Amy Swerdlow, Jeanne, at least, was living in New Orleans in the mid-1950s, where she was reconstructing herself as a Beat. She was alternately lonely and ecstatic until, through intense self-therapy, she made a breakthrough. Towards the end of the decade, at least, she was involved with Beat poetry, contributing to the Memphis small magazine “River” and being interviewed by Charles Ossman for “The Sullen Art.” (There is a reel-to-reel tape of her at the University of Toledo, which may shed some light on her background.)