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Alzira Peirce Albaugh (born January 31, 1908 - died June 19, 2010) was a political activist, artist, WWII veteran and radio announcer.
Born Alzira Handforth Boehm on January 31, 1908 in New York City, she and her siblings moved to Circle, Montana to live as homesteaders after their father, August Abraham Boehm, died. Their mother, Hazel Hunter Handforth (September 12, 1883 - ca. 1957) was a suffragette, a homesteader, and later, and a restaurateur in New York's Greenwich Village in the 1920s. Her father, August Abraham Boehm (1841-1912), was a pioneering German-born New York City real estate developer of Jewish descent, who lost most of his fortune.
Growing up in Montana, Alzira played the harmonica, drew, and rode horses. When she was 13 she moved back to New York and sought employment through one of her paternal uncles, an architect. In New York she studied at the Art Students League and later traveled to Paris to study. She painted, sculpted, and drew many works of art. Her poetry was published in The New Yorker magazine.
Career
She taught art to sailors on leave at the International Seamen's Union. One of her students was the cartoonist Gahan Wilson. She joined the Army during World War Two, working for the Red Cross and doing publicity for the Army for nearly two years. After leaving the Army she underwent a divorce from the artist Waldo Peirce, 24 years her senior; she had become Peirce's third wife in 1930; the couple would have three children, Michael, Mellon Chaimberlain (Bill), and Anna. Anna predeceased her mother.
Alzira later became active in party politics, as well as a union organizer (who later married the radical British solicitor Gareth Peirce) lived with her during some of this period. Alzira Peirce moved to New Mexico and worked as an organizer for the United Mine Workers union. She later married Chuck Albaugh. They separated after four years.
Death
Alzira Peirce Albaugh died in 2010, aged 102, from sepsis. She was survived by her two sons and eight grandchildren.
Education
Art Students League of New York Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Affiliations
Death
Alzira Peirce Albaugh died, aged 102, on June 19, 2010.
References
- Hazel Hunter Handforth info, familysearch.org; accessed May 17, 2014.
- Hazel Handforth death info, familysearch.org; accessed May 17, 2014.
- American Jewish Year Book, Vol. 15 (1913-14), p. 269; accessed May 3, 2012.
- Obituary for Abraham Boehm, The New York Times, July 4, 1912.
- "Silent Rivers", The New Yorker, March 2, 1940.
- Excerpted from Peter H. Falk et al (ed), Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.
- Peirce family genealogy site, chamberlainpeirce.com; accessed May 17, 2014.
- Profile with cause of death, geni.com; accessed October 29, 2014.
- Obituary, legacy.com; accessed October 29, 2014.
- Obituary for Alzira Peirce, legacy.com; accessed May 17, 2014.