Osea C. Noss: American Woman Hero, My Great Aunt, Friend & Mentor

As an artist, I draw so much of my strength and inspiration from family and friends, and my Aunt Osea, who just passed away on November 7, is one of those special relatives who showed me how to live and love life to the fullest.

Tall, thin and dramatic, my Aunt Osea had a presence about her. She and her husband, Luther, loved music, learning, traveling, collecting treasures from around the world and entertaining family and guests. I learned so much from her that I wanted to share her story and some memories with you.

Coming to the U.S.
Osea C. Noss immigrated to the United States from northern Italy in 1913 with my grandmother, grandfather and three siblings. (A fifth child, my Aunt Dolly, was born to the family after moving to the U.S.) They left port at La Havre, France, and sailed the Rochambeau into Ellis Island. They settled in Tarrington, Connecticut. They were an educated family, and my grandfather was a newspaper publisher. What impresses me is how close they remained to their family members back in Italy. My family is just like that. We have always been close, and that has always given me a feeling of place and pride in the world, a place where I always feel lots of love and support. I grew up surrounded by strength and determination and ingenuity of amazing women and their men.

A Box of Chocolates
One of my earliest recollections visiting Aunt Osea and Uncle Luther's house was at a gathering of the Calciolari clan. One of my other aunts brought my sisters and I a box of chocolate-covered cherries, and we sat in Uncle Luther's study and just ate the whole box right then and there. Of course, the next stop was in his bathroom, all of us very sick! An early lesson learned, "On your toes when visiting Osea."

A Lovely and Loving Home
Aunt Osea and Uncle Luther's house was fascinating. It was full of art and books and music and treasures from their travels around the world. Uncle Luther was a Master at Silliman College. In 1954, he was appointed Dean of Yale's School of Music held for the next 13 years. My aunt would single-handedly cook and entertain famous guests that she and Luther would invite over to have tea with the music students. In fact, when she and Luther left Silliman, Osea was replaced with an entire kitchen staff! Like all the women in my family, she could do it all - the planning, the cooking and the hosting - with grace and energy.

My fondest memories are the simplest ones. I used to visit them when I was in college in New Haven. I was expected at 5 o'clock and no later than 5:15 p.m. When I arrived, I'd find Osea reading to Luther, looking up a word in the dictionary, cooking or listening to music. Luther would prepare a little cocktail for me and himself - a real Martini - and Osea preferred whiskey. We'd talk about life, their travels and the wonderful treasures they had found, their friends, concerts they'd attended, world events, family history, you name it! It was always such lively conversation. Sometimes Uncle Luther would talk about the days when he was stationed in Saipan. He worked in intelligence, collecting, deciphering and recording all of the leaflets that were dropped over Japan. Thanks to Osea, his uniform and collection are now preserved at the Colorado Springs Air Force Museum. Osea and Luther were archivists and documentarians.

Other Fond Memories
Other fond memories with Osea and Luther: trips to Long Wharf Theatre ... season tickets to the Yale Repertory Theatre ... road trips to visit relatives ... Osea's 70th reunion for Cornell alumni. Aunt Osea was the first person in her family to graduate from college and one of only seven or eight women at Cornell at the time who received what she called "a real B.A." She made it clear that she was not a graduate of the home economics department; she had a degree in Arts and Science. She loved theater and even traveled for two years as a personal assistant to poet and dramatist, Zoe Atkins.

Aunt Osea was quite theatrical herself. She was a real white-haired beauty. She came by her white hair at an early age, when she was in college, in fact. As family tells it, she became very ill at Cornell, and her hair color completely changed. (No one even remembers her natural hair color anymore.) The average person might have just packed up and gone home but my aunt, she stuck it out and stayed in college. And it's a good thing she did because that's where she met Uncle Luther. He was teaching and playing the organ at Cornell when they met. On one of their first dates, they danced all night long to jazz musician Cab Calloway. When Osea met Luther, she was engaged to someone else, but apparently Uncle Luther literally swept her off her feet! I would read Uncle Luther's journals of those early days to Osea and comment, "Those were wild times, Aunt Osea!" She would respond, "Yes, they were," with a wry smile.

The Chinese Statue
Of all the international treasures at Aunt Osea and Uncle Luther's house, there was this one little Chinese silver guy laden with trinkets and charms that always fascinated me. I would notice it during our Martini sessions. In fact, I can trace so much of what I do, metal sculptures with dangling charms, to that one little statue. Aunt Osea and Uncle Luther could always tell you a story about where and when they found each piece of art in their home, and this particular statue they found in a marketplace in China. He's made of silver and holding all kinds of things he presumably would be selling.

My First Art Show
My first art show was in New Haven, down the street from Aunt Osea's house, at the request of some friends of hers who owned an American Folk Art gallery. I didn't really know what to make, but since they knew I had been experimenting with metal, they asked me to make Gabriel the Herald Angel out of metal. So I made this flying figure and then, because of my fascination with the little guy from China, I found neat charms and attached them to the arms. And that was the beginning of my artistic style as you know it today!

Nurturing the Seeds
To sum up, when I think of my Aunt Osea, I just remember how she and her husband were always planting seeds of thought. They had such a tremendous curiosity and hunger for life, and they never stopped challenging the people around them and sharing their wonder. Although they had no biological children, through their creativity, they nurtured friends and family, inspiring the intellectual and artful life.

NOTE: The Yale School of Music will hold a memorial service for my aunt at Sprague Hall on Sunday, December 5, 2004, at 2 p.m.