[ilds] Jane Arden Stoneback

[slighcl]

Sparrow Stoneback died on 25 May 2008. 

Sparrow was a good friend to many more people than we will ever be able 
to reckon, and she will always remain a dear-hearted memory to so many 
Durrellians.

I have copied Sparrow's obituary here below from the Poughkeepsie Journal. 

Be seeing you, Sparra--

Charles

***

Sparrow - Jane Arden Stoneback
HIGHLAND, NY - Sparrow - Jane Arden Stoneback - singer/songwriter of 
international reputation, paragon of grit and grace, wit and will, 
during her long fight with lung cancer and all her life, passed away May 
25 at Cumberland County Hospital in Kentucky. Born in Carter County, in 
the eastern Kentucky hill-country, daughter of Alice and Richard 
Hillman, she made her home in the Hudson Valley for the past four 
decades. Before moving to Highland in 1969, she lived in Alabama, 
Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, New Orleans, South Jersey, and Tennessee. She 
also lived and traveled extensively abroad, especially in France and 
China. She studied at Vanderbilt University, the University of Paris and 
Peking University. She taught and tutored English language students and 
lectured on folksong in France and China. Other work experience included 
a year in Hawaii as Executive Assistant to the President of one of the 
largest Pacific Rim firms, three years in Nashville as national 
troubleshooter for General Electric, and many years in the emergency 
room admissions department of Benedictine Hospital in Kingston. She was 
also a writer who published essays, poems, and songs. During a 
forty-five year singing career as the better half of the duo "Stoney & 
Sparrow", she achieved national and international renown as a singer 
through her powerful and nuanced performances of folk, country and 
gospel songs as well as her own compositions. She made concert tours and 
television and radio appearances throughout Asia, Europe, and North 
America under the auspices of the British Council, the Fulbright 
Program, USIA (the US State Department), and many other cultural 
organizations and institutions. She performed in Austria, China, 
Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, 
Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, 
Spain, Thailand and other countries, as well in most of the fifty states 
and throughout the Caribbean. In 1984, she sang all over China and 
several albums featuring her singing were major hit recordings there - 
said to be the first million-selling records by an American in China. In 
2006 a 2CD album, "Stoney & Sparrow: Songs of Place 1962-2006", was 
released (recorded live in New Paltz). In 2007, another album, 
"Overcoming: Live in Alabama, China, and the Hudson Valley" was 
released, featuring earlier concert performances and dedicated to the 
Hope Lodge in Nashville, where cancer patients at the Vanderbilt Medical 
Center reside during treatment. Closer to home, Sparrow was wellknown 
for her performances in the Hudson Valley, especially at SUNY New Paltz, 
where she performed annually for many years. The world that she made in 
her singing was inseparable from her role as gracious host and adoptive 
mother to the extended family of generations of SUNY New Paltz students 
that she welcomed to her home, their home. This community, this 
communion of students and teachers, poets and writers, salutes her as 
muse: "Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, 
and he praiseth her."(Proverbs 31:28) She is survived by her husband of 
forty-six years, H.R.("Stoney" - Distinguished Professor of English at 
SUNY New Paltz); her son, Rick (CEO of the Cumberland County Hospital in 
Kentucky) and his wife, Robin; her son, Gregg(Professor of English at 
Westfield State College in Massachusetts) and his wife, Nancy; and her 
four grandchildren, Adam and Lee(Westfield, MA) and Rachel and 
Richard(Marrowbone, KY). Visitation will be held Friday, May 30, 2008, 
10-11:30am at the Michael Torsone Memorial Funeral Home, Inc., 38 Main 
St., Highland, NY. A funeral mass will be held 12:30pm following 
visitation at the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 
with Rev. Peter J. Vianney celebrating the mass. Burial will follow in 
the Ascension Church Cemetery, West Park, NY. For directions, please 
visit www.torsonememorial.com.

-- 
**********************
Charles L. Sligh
Department of English
Wake Forest University
slighcl at wfu.edu
**********************