Elizabeth Seward Fleeson died at her Provincetown home on February 11, 2022, nine days before her 66th birthday.
Known to everyone as Libby, she moved from Milan, Italy to Provincetown in early 2000 with her husband, the late Massimo Pagluighi.
They immediately put away their chic Italian city clothes and enthusiastically joined the dressed-down, casual P-Town scene of jeans, sweats, and a favorite khaki army jacket.
A year-round resident, Libby found herself becoming an artist in Provincetown, working with mixed media for collages. She combed the beaches and crushed clamshell parking lots for flotsam and jetsam and vintage ceramic bits to assemble distinctive mosaics. She entered pieces at the Provincetown Art Association, including a 2010 collage entitled Monumental Centennial, which featured an antique map of the Cape surrounded by snapping lobster claws. She sculpted a life-size portrait of her cat, Chessie, which was cast in golden bronze.
At her Provincetown Commons studio, she gave classes in ceramic mosaics, and in her kitchen, she taught Italian cooking to rapt audiences. A savvy gourmet, she cooked American and Italian, always served on her collection of blue and white china.
Libby, a striking blond with an intuitive sense of glamor and style, showed her early fashion sense when growing up outside Minneapolis in Hopkin’s Sherwood Forest neighborhood. As a toddler she was known to all for insisting on wearing her crinoline petticoat at all times, even over a snowsuit or pajamas. The family moved to Connecticut when she was eight.
She studied business at Boston University when she began a career as a fashion model, signed by the Maggie, Inc. agency. Several people in the fashion business suggested that she would do well in Europe. In 1975 she flew on a one-way ticket to Milan and checked into a small hotel frequented by models. On her third day there she met Massimo, the man who would become the love of her life. They were together nearly every day from the day they met until Massimo’s death on February 1, 2019.
Massimo (called Max) was also in the clothing business in Milan. After an initial year or two of modeling in Europe, Libby went to work in an American buying office based in Milan that expedited fashion exports. At times she worked as a consultant at the Milan and Paris fashion shows. Eventually, Libby opened her own buying office in Milan, handling table wares for the Henri Bendel department store in New York.
Every August when much of Italy closed for a long vacation, Libby and Massimo flew to Connecticut to see her parents and American family. The two always sped off to the Cape for at least a week and fell in love with its rugged beauty and quirky populace. For years they dreamed of an early retirement to the Cape.
Libby negotiated two, bold intercontinental moves that both were leaps of faith: One to Milan; and the other from Milan to Provincetown.
In 2000, Libby and Massimo left Italy and bought an open-floor plan condo that reminded them of their Milan apartment.
In later years when Massimo had prolonged illness and mobility problems, Libby was his steadfast caregiver.
Libby also incurred health problems with mobility limitations. But she was optimistic about recovery and insisted on graduating from walker to cane. She told friends she was looking forward to summer 2022 so she could swim, a lifelong sport for her. She had been a member of the Conard High School diving team in West Hartford, CT.
Libby leaves friends with warm memories and bittersweet, unfulfilled requests. Her cousin-in-law Geraldine Kucer of Chicago, for instance, repeatedly asked Libby for her borscht recipe, but Libby held out. (One clue: the secret ingredient was dill pickle juice.)
In Boston in the early 1970s she met Christine Dillinger, who became her best friend for more than 40 years. Christine, now of Mashpee, described Libby as “A true Diva in every sense of the word! Her chipper ‘Hi Dill!’ over the phone always made me smile and we'd go on to reminisce about our days in Boston, Milan, West Hartford and whatever was on her mind that day. Sometimes it was about the TV series she was into and other times we'd discuss what she was cooking that night. We would exchange recipes just like two old ladies –lol. She'd tell me how she ordered a 2-lb lobster all for herself from Fanizzi’s Restaurant and how she should have ordered another!”
Christine talked with Libby through the dark days following Massimo’s death: “She was very honest about their ups and downs and didn't sugar coat anything, but all in all he was the one true love of her life. She was finally starting to come to terms with his death and looking forward to better times.”
One leap Libby refused was into 21st century technology. Christine tried: “I'd bring my laptop up to show her pictures of work we did on our house or places we had gone, hoping she would want to learn about the Internet and perhaps get into email, but she would have no part of it. She'd say 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks.’”
Anyone who knows Libby knows how much she valued her pets. First, in Milan she loved the handsome huskie Ulkie who hiked in the Italian Alps with her, and her black cat, Rex. On the Cape she left behind her beloved tortoise cat, Chessie, and the black cat Spock. Chessie has been adopted and Spock is currently residing in CASAS.
Libby’s last view on earth was looking out over Provincetown Bay. She had installed red and green ship’s lights signaling port and starboard on either side of her balcony glass doors.
Survivors include brothers William P. Fleeson of Duluth, Breck Fleeson of Minneapolis, MN, and Peter Fleeson of Hartford, CT; a sister, Lucinda Fleeson of Washington, DC; a niece, Jocinda Fleeson Gaynor of Minneapolis, MN; two nephews: William Fleeson of Lewisville, NC and Nikolai Fleeson of Cameron, MT.
For memorial donations, please consider The Carrie A. Seaman Animal Shelter, a no-kill animal shelter designed to support the wonderful animals of lower Cape Cod. They are staffed entirely by volunteers and all funding for the shelter is derived from donations and fundraising events. Libby had volunteered there.
To donate in Libby’s name, you may call 508-487-4243 with a credit card from 2 – 3 pm EST, donate through Paypal and add a memo that it is in memory of Libby, or mail a check to CASAS Box 1374, Provincetown, MA 02657.