Kim Suzanne Sedlock

Kim Sedlock did not “lose” her fight with cancer. She was supposed to die a long time ago. Before coming to Rochester, N.Y., Kim spent years becoming educated, writing, directing theatre, teaching, having her own radio show where she interviewed live blues bands (A Redhead Spins the Blues, produced at New Hampshire’s WSCA), having her heart broken, breaking other people’s hearts, travelling Europe, going dancing, taking in plenty of books/plays/paintings/songs, overcoming childhood trauma, overcoming adult trauma, winning awards, spending too much money, walking around, driving around, daydreaming, going to cancer appointments, going to acupuncture, trying out different day jobs, exercising, reading, watching mindless television, and even trying marriage and step-parenting.

She was a proud member of Century Club of Rochester, Highland Park Conservancy, The Anti-Child-Trafficking Committee of the Junior League, The Advocacy Committee of Breast Cancer Coalition (advocating for legislation restricting dangerous plastics and makeup ingredients in New York State), Soroptimist International, and Midtown Athletic Club; a use-your-facilities-once-a-week-or-once-a-month member of Memorial Art Gallery, Book Culture, Abundance Food Coop, Mud Creek Farm, and Spiritus Christi Progressive Independent Catholic Church (which separated from Vatican City, which is open to women priests, gay priests, and married priests, which serves communion to anyone who wants it, and which puts its money toward a clinic, rehab, and halfway house for the local community – her communal beliefs were actually Unitarian Universalist with an emphasis on both mindfulness and transcendental meditation, and she believed Jesus was a beautiful metaphor, Mary was symbolic of an artist and an artist’s experiences with creating, God was a loving positive force, the Holy Spirit could happen at a great party, and that all religions contain some beauty and some b.s. – but she was a sucker for the traditional Mass, traditional social justice initiatives [as a center-left Democrat and feminist], traditional religious statues and paintings, and the idea of speaking directly to her dead ancestors). She was also an occasionally-present networking member of Writers & Books and The Yards Collective as well as a regular supporter of Small World Books, Greenwood Books, Flower City Arts Center, Mercy Spirituality Center, the East Avenue Grocery Run, Fairy Godmothers, Troop 6,000 (NYC Girl Scouts whose families are in homeless shelters), Make a Wish Foundation, Equality Now, the Landmark Society of Western New York, Innocence Project, Chris Beat Cancer, Wikipedia, the Spa at Del Monte, and Restore Hyper Wellness.

Raised mostly in New York State and educated at The Walnut Hill School, Beloit College (B.A. Creative Writing), and Southwick Studio, Kim was the daughter of the late John Joseph “Mark” Sedlock, Jr., a former Catholic monk who trained medical assistants in Wilmington, North Carolina and who descended from an Austrian-American/Irish-American Philadelphia-based eye doctor (originally sur-named Sedlockechen) and his Irish-American wife whose family had run the Dublin stagecoach. Kim’s mother was the late ballet-dancer of The Metropolitan Opera, who also obtained an M.A. in theology: Nina Catherine “Kim Delores” (Pannizzo) Sedlock (of Portland, Maine, in her later teaching years) who had descended from Sicilian-American second cousins whose mutual family had owned vineyards in Sicily but later owned a large printing press company in Manhattan. Other notable relatives include late great-grandmother Catie Baiada (who portrayed Betsy Ross in a television series), maternal cousins-once-removed Mark Bayada (founder and former CEO of Bayada Nurses), Mel Baiada (founder and former CEO of BlueStone Technology, later sold to Hewlett-Packard), maternal cousin Michelle Young (an Ivy-educated businesswoman and close friend), maternal first cousin Vincent Pannizzo, Jr. (a famous street preacher in California who lives destitute among the homeless in order to help them spiritually), paternal uncle Jim Sedlock (former head of the math department at Rhode Island State College), and late paternal first cousin Anne Sedlock (an Ivy-educated nurse practitioner who died of brain cancer.) Kim also leaves behind maternal first cousin Michelle Young of New Jersey, three paternal first cousins in Rhode Island (Kerry, Clare, and Maura Sedlock), and many close friends (including poet/archivist Heather Richmond, ex-husband Jason Kruger, longtime friend of the family Jen With One N (Jennifer Kemp of Georgia), civil rights activist Cariol Holloman-Horne, mentor Clint McCown, and many wonderful neighbors, students, cast members, club members, clients, ex-radio-pals, listeners, audience members, and readers). May her radiant smile live on in our memories.