KRISTEN DEMING

1939 - 2019

DEMING Kristen Bracewell Deming April 29, 1939 - October 21, 2019 Kristen Bracewell Deming, 80, died peacefully at home in Bethesda, Maryland on October 21, 2019, with family by her side. She succumbed after a courageous decade-long battle with lung disease. Kristen was an accomplished haiku poet and artist, and lover of literature. Her haiku collection, "Plum Afternoon," was a finalist in the Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Award in 2017 and was also a finalist for the Touchstone Distinguished Book Award in the same year. As an integral partner in her husband's 38-year Foreign Service career, Kristen excelled at her own brand of cultural diplomacy abroad, drawing on her artistic talents, innate interest in other people and cultures, and her sincerity and empathy to make lasting friendships during four tours of duty in Japan and two in Tunisia, to the benefit of American interests. In Japan, Kristen was active in organizing poetry groups, hosting English-language haiku and Tanka gatherings. She also helped arrange successive U.S.-Japan haiku conferences in Chicago (1995) and Tokyo (1997). One of Kristen's most effective and enduring contributions to cultural diplomacy was a weekly poetry column in the Japan Times called "Haiku Moments" that she co-wrote with a Japanese colleague for six years. The column translated one Japanese language haiku each week, along with detailed analysis of the poem, helping to open the world of haiku to English speakers and to give glimpses of Japanese culture through the lens of poetry. Kristen served as one of three English language consultants for Tomoshibi (Light), the collected Tanka poetry of the Emperor and Empress of Japan. In 1991 and again in 1995, she was among a handful of non-Japanese invited to the New Year's Poetry Reading Party (Utakai-Hajime) at the Imperial Court, the annual Japan competition where selected poems are chanted in the presence of the Imperial Family. While in Japan, Kristen also served as president of the Tokyo-Washington Women's Club, was active in women's international charity groups, and taught English in a private Japanese middle school. In both Washington and Tokyo, Kristen enjoyed sculpting gingerbread cookies in the form of caricatures of folk characters and public figures, including politicians and sumo wrestlers. In the 1980s, her "cookie art" was the subject of a Washington Post Food Section feature and an NHK television segment. Kristen joked that she would be remembered for her cookies more than anything else. Kristen also found time to play a lead in the American Embassy's amateur production of "The Mikado." After returning to the United States in 1997, Kristen served as president of the Haiku Society of America in 1998. She later joined the Towpath Haiku Group in Washington, D.C. Kristen's final overseas living experience was in Tunisia, a country that had been the couple's first Foreign Service assignment 34 four years earlier. While her husband served as ambassador from 2000 to 2003, Kristen reached out to the Tunisian artistic community and to the wives of Tunisian officials and Arab diplomats. Her sincerity and warmth won her many friends, even from those whose governments strongly opposed U.S. policies, particularly the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At one point during the war, Kris invited a group of Tunisian and Arab embassy women to her home for tea. The group came, but only after making clear they were not visiting the Residence of the American Ambassador; they were visiting "their friend Kristen's home." Wherever she was, Kristen found a way to make a positive difference. Among Kristen's many honors, she was the recipient of the Japan Society of Washington DC's 2016 Marshall Green Award for her "sustained and significant contribution to U.S.-Japan relations." Kristen Bracewell was born in Gainesville, Florida in 1939. She grew up in Jacksonville and attended Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, graduating in 1962. At Rollins, she was editor of the literary magazine "The Flamingo" and co-editor of the yearbook. While a student, she won the Academy of American Poets Prize for Colleges and Universities. After graduation, she taught art and English in a public junior high in Winter Park before embarking in partnership with her husband on a long Foreign Service career. Kristen is survived by her husband of 56 years, Rust Deming of Bethesda, MD; her daughters Justine Rodriguez of San Bernardino, CA; Jennifer Burnham of Los Altos Hills, CA; and Katherine Brodie of Chevy Chase, MD, and by seven grandchildren. She is also survived by her brothers Daniel Bracewell of Deerfield Beach, FL, and James Bracewell of Winter Park, FL; two sisters, Pally May of Sarasota, FL and Merry Lynn Benfield of Bradenton, FL; and sister-in-law Rosamond Deming of Madrid, Spain. A memorial service will be held in December. Donations in her name may be made to "Haiku Society of America" (http:/www.has-haiku.org). The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. Matsuo Basho