DONNA MARXER

MARXER--Donna

artist, poet, activist and humanist, died November 27 at Mount Sinai Heart Hospital. Donna was born April 15, 1934, in Miami, FL. At age two she won a talent contest, was signed to a Paramount Pictures contract, and appeared in a Bing Crosby musical, "The Star Maker," but her parents moved the family back to Florida. After graduation from the University of Florida she moved to New York, earned a MFA from Columbia in 1958, and began her career as a professional artist. Her paintings have been exhibited in more than fifty solo and group shows in the United States, as well as in Norway, France, Cuba, Costa Rica and Liechtenstein. A sampling of her art can be viewed at donnamarxer.com. In 2001 she founded Artists In Residence In Everglades (AIRIE), a program enabling artists to live and work in Everglades National Park. A lifelong activist, Donna also served as Executive Director of Artists Talk On Art, and on the boards of New York Artists Equity, the Organization of Independent Artists, and of the Rebecca Kelly Ballet Company. A humanist, she served as Treasurer of the Secular Humanist Society of New York. In 1981 she married writer John Rafferty and became a loving and much- loved stepmother to John's sons David, Colin, Brendan and Brian, and to their eight children, all of whom survive and mourn her and treasure the memory of joyous family gatherings in her artist's loft in SoHo. A memorial service is being planned for early January.