Pamela Sumner

1941 - 2016

Sumner, Pamela
Feb. 11, 1941 - Oct. 20, 2016
Pamela Sumner passed away in the company of loving friends in Sarasota on October 20th. The cause was complications from her courageous battle with cancer. She lived 75 diversely—even "wildly"-- creative and rewarding years.
Pam was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, born inquisitive, and destined and determined to be an artist, later writing a book about her childhood titled "Why I'm An Artist…And Not A Bunch Of Other Things."
But she was a bunch of other things as well. In addition to painter, graphic artist and sculptor, and promoter of all things artful in Sarasota, Pam was a writer, fashion designer, teacher, gourmand, and the gentlest of souls. (No contentious political talk at Pam's parties, please!)
Her imagination was boundless. In iconcept2016, a charity fashion show benefiting the arts of Sarasota, one of her provocative creations was a sensuous gown of see-through chiffon, strategically embellished with candy wrappers! It was a hit of the runway. Undoubtedly her now-deceased father and mother, Paul and Barbara Eggleston, were inspiration. They were early fashion innovators, just after WWII designing and selling bikini bathing suits and lingerie via mail order.
Pamela's brother, Gary Eggleston, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, remembers her as a young girl, "She loved sand, seaweed, bugs and clouds, and summers in Provincetown," where she painted seashells and sold them in front of her family's summer home. The more complicated artwork was a nickel more.
In addition to Gary and his wife, Judith, and nephews Jeffrey and Paul Eggleston, and his partner Courtney Burke, Pam is survived by her aunt Virginia Flynn of Goose Rocks Beach, Maine, and by many cousins.
Pamela grew up and was schooled in Melrose, then became a graduate of St. Lawrence University. Later she was Director of Exhibits for The Museum of Science in Boston, and taught school in Los Angeles, before moving to Sarasota in 1993 to be closer to her mother and stepfather, the late Gordon Pulver.
Pam was always a teacher, of both aspiring artists and, more recently-- as a member of Sarasota Teaching Artists--of Middle School students for whom she developed special programs, for example, using art to better communicate math and science concepts.
Pamela believed art could save the world. She challenged herself and her imagination constantly in that belief. In a note to herself she admonished: "Keep your eyes open…and your ears…and your nose; look at ordinary things in an extraordinary way; and don't wear your favorite clothes for outdoor adventures."
And if art couldn't save the world, Pam believed food could! 'At least her friends wouldn't go hungry waiting for the art thing to work.' Her dinners were legend, sometimes strangely themed, but always meticulously planned and realized, whether recreating an original menu from The Siege of Paris, 1870, or her renowned, but more traditional annual Christmas Eve dinner.
Pamela loved Christmas. Strings of tiny bulbs crisscrossed her ceilings, and their light and the light of Christmas trees, for which she had made many of the decorations, created a Norman Rockwell sort of warmth and hominess. And during the year she had carefully shopped for pertinent presents for each of the dozen or so dinner guests, not big things but perfectly right things. She was a little girl again every Christmas Eve.
Pamela loved the poetries of life and imparting them to others. She will long be remembered by her caring family in Wakefield. And her Sarasota family, those 50-some members of "Team Pam," as she called them, who helped her in her difficult struggle, will certainly not forget her soon.
A memorial event for Pamela will be announced later.