WESTPORT, MA – Lydia Gifford Chamberlin, an accomplished artist whose paintings are part of the permanent collection of The National Museum for Women in the Arts, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as many other notable public and private collections, died January 29 in Westport, Massachusetts. She was 85 years old.
Her death was announced by her husband of fifty-eight years, Ward. B. Chamberlin.
Lydia Chamberlin was an artist whose landscapes range in locale from Italy and France to Washington, D.C. and New England, where she resided until her death. Although she focused on the natural beauty of the sea and the shore, she also displayed a love of architecture and painted many of the buildings in our nation’s capital. With her respect for form and her intuitive understanding of place, her style was luminous and clear, with vibrant color and a sense of joyous exuberance.
She was the wife of Ward. B. Chamberlin, one of the founders of public broadcasting in the United States, who survives her. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of the late Marjorie Young Gifford and the late Stephen W. Gifford of Duxbury, Massachusetts where she grew-up. She is also survived by her brother, Stephen W. Gifford of Dedham, Massachusetts; a daughter, Carolyn Chamberlin of Westport, Massachusetts; a daughter, Margot Chamberlin of Newton, Massachusetts and four grandchildren. She graduated from The Winsor School and Bryn Mawr College.
A memorial service will be held at twelve noon on Saturday, February 7, 2009 at the United Congregational Church of Little Compton, Rhode Island (http://ucclcri.org/). The service is open to the public.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Visiting Nurses of Southeastern Massachusetts, Hospice and Palliative Care, 502 Bedford Street
Fall River, MA 02720.