August 30, 2004 – Charnell’s visit with Jean McSwain
It was a magical weekend.
I just returned from California, where I spent two days as the guest of Tahoma’s very special lady friend from the early 1940s. I’d had many phone conversations with Jean and her wonderful husband Larry (now deceased) off and on for several years, but had been unable to visit her until now.
I photographed the Tahoma paintings she and Larry had acquired. Then Jean showed me the rawhide jacket and the turquoise jewelry Quincy had given her when she was Jean Wallace, the wonderful Christmas card he had drawn for her, and the magnificent sketches he had made of her and her mother.
The Christmas card featured a gangly colt and a greeting hand-lettered in the extravagant swooping script that he sometimes used. All had been lovingly preserved throughout the years.
As we talked, she reminisced about their times together and about how very special a person Quincy was. After a while, she brought out this lovely lady’s compact with an embedded watch on its top. Tahoma had painted two beautiful scenes on it: a cottontail rabbit in the desert on the back and, on the front, an inquisitive little fawn gazing at the time. He had given it to Jean as a special present in 1944, the date still clearly visible in his miniature next-scene signatures. Then Jean gave it to me, and I cried.
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