Our dear friend Rhoda Rossmoore, 89, died peacefully July 21, 2015 in Provincetown. Her death followed a fall which broke her hip. Rhoda was born in Brooklyn, NY on December 16, 1925, and raised her own family in Provincetown and Stamford, CT.
Rhoda was brilliant and beautiful, a lively participant in the Provincetown art community. Rhoda actively encouraged a generation of figurative and conceptual artists, including iconic Susan Baker, Peter Hutchison, Arthur Cohen, Mimi Gross and Marcia Marcus to name just a few. She became a champion of emerging artists in Provincetown. In the early sixties she organized the rebellious “Alternate Route Six” group of painters and the exhibition of their work.
After renting several houses in town for the summer, she bought 68 Commercial on that magical corner of Commercial and West Vine Streets. Renting rooms to many of the performers at the Blues Bag and various other interesting characters, that house (and stoop and the badminton court that was the front yard), at 68 became one of the epicenters of the West End counter culture scene. It was there that she prepped, exhibited and sold Wendy Everett’s amazing painted bread boxes and other furnishings from the front yard, helped raise the gang of West End kids that roamed the neighborhood along with many of the families of the West End and began her married life with Will Rossmoore. They made a deal: he wanted to live on the water and she always wanted to have a tan. For the next 36 years they did just that and they were the happiest years of their lives.
Rhoda loved Provincetown deeply in her heart. She threw herself into the life of the town, interacting with the many diverse people here. She helped when needed, was full of ideas for improvement in all sorts of ways and figured out how to bring those ideas to fruition. She generously opened her house for fund raising benefits, including the Provincetown Public Library, various political campaigns, The Fine Arts Work Center and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (her most extravagant fund raiser was in 1981 with Howard Mitcham roasting a pig on the beach on a spit designed and made by Jack Kearney) as well as donating to Helping Our Women, the Aids Support Group, and the previously mentioned institutions, among others. After being a board member of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum for several years during the 1980's and 1990's, she served as both Secretary and President of PAAM's Board of Trustees.
Her legacy leaves a great art collection of contemporary and folk art. Rhoda was always gracious and welcoming to a great variety of visitors, one always met with a crowd of creative people inside the house or outside on the deck at 25 Commercial. Rhoda was the consummate hostess and gardener and was an avid tag sale and thrift store shopper.
Rhoda was pre deceased by her husband Will Rossmoore and her sons Andrew and David Germain and survived by Neal and Amy Germain, Daniel Germain, Irene Simonian; Elisa, Nicole, Alexis and Schuyler Germain, Susan Stone, Laura Yingling, Erik Yingling, Elise Rising Sun Boyce, Jacqui Stavis, Katherine Rossmoore Shields and Bill Shields, Raphael Richter, and Justin and Tyler Shields.