Poet Deborah Digges has died

Fri, 04/17/2009 - 8:30am by sernabad

Deborah Digges, poet, memoirist, and painter died last Friday, April 10.

She began writing poetry as a lonely young wife while her first husband served multiple missions for the Air Force during the Vietnam War. Her first collection, Vesper Sparrows, was published in 1986. Rough Music: Poems (1995) was awarded the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.

A fiercely devoted mother, Ms. Digges recounted her efforts, in The Stardust Lounge: Stories from a Boy’s Adolescence (2001), to save her then-14 year son from his frightening self-destructive behavior. She opened her home to his gang member friends, listened to their music, and refused to give up. It destroyed her second marriage but she turned her son’s life around. He is now a successful photojournalist in Kenya. His work can be seen in The Stardust Lounge.

Sadly, Ms. Digges was unable to save herself. Lost in grief after losing her third husband, Dr. Franklin Loew, who died in 2003, Ms. Digges committed suicide on the campus of the University of Massachusetts.

She was just 59.