Reminisce With Me/Sep. 20th, 2008

This is the final entry in the journal of Nancy Kippax, written by April Valentine, recording her death and memorializing her life. Nancy died on September 20th, 2008.

Sept 20, 2008

Dear friends,

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post for my beloved friend, Nancy. She has been in the hospital for the last couple of weeks, suffering from many different health problems. Today, she lost her long battle and passed away around 4:30 p.m. EST.

There will be no more Star Trek fandom memories posted by Nancy. We were friends for 32 years. I worked on countless stories with her, she proofed, edited, plotted and helped me with many of the stories I wrote in Star Trek fandom and those I wrote in other fandoms as well. We spoke almost daily, even after she moved from her native Baltimore, Maryland to Savannah, Georgia 4 years ago.

We ran several conventions together, notably Spectrum, which was a mixed media gen convention, and she was on the concomm for ConneXions, our east coast slash con as well, in charge of registration and shopping for the gifts we gave out to attendees in our raffle. She and I did several zines in Kiefer/Lou fandom and she also published two gen Simon and Simon zines. She got into Queer as Folk and wrote a lovely novel in that fandom, along with a few other stories.

We went through many good times and bad together -- losing other friends, including her sister, Bev Volker who co-published Contact with Nancy and with whom Nancy wrote many wonderful stories. Bev passed away 5 years ago this May.

In March, Nancy got to see Lou Diamond Phillips, whom she loved dearly, here in Baltimore in "Camelot". I posted some photos of us with Lou after that event. [info]aprilvalentine I will try to repost them here in the coming days, along with some photos of Nancy and more information. I'm also considering using this space to post some of Nancy's fanfiction which has never been posted online before, but that we were talking about putting up in the future.

Here is what her nephew, Steve Wilson, posted for the Farpoint yahoo group list, which she moderated:

My Friends --

Nancy Kippax, this group's founder and moderator, my aunt by marriage and my friend, died this afternoon at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, GA. Nancy had suffered an extended illness, and had been in and out of the hospital repeatedly for the last six months.

Nancy was a founding member of the Clippercon committee from which Farpoint eventually developed. She ran our dealers' room for many years, worked our orphan zine table, and, most recently, coordinated our helpers. Nancy and her sister, Bev Volker, published the Trek zine Contact from 1975 through 1987.

During her final months, Nancy kept an excellent blog of memories of Fandom. Visiting it is a great way to remember her: http://njpax.livejournal.com/

Nancy will be cremated in Georgia and buried next to her late husband, Bob, in Maryland. A memorial service will be held for family and friends in Maryland. We haven't identified a charity for memorial donations as yet. An announcement will be made here when we have.

Please take a moment to remember or say a prayer for Nancy and her family -- Jon, Dave, Cindy, Jessie, JJ and Emily. Fandom was one of the most important things in her life. She enjoyed maintaining this forum, and I know she loved you all, her extended family.

As she and Bev said so often: We Are One - We Reach.

-- Steve

Any comments which are left here on Nancy's LJ will be forwarded to her family and to her extended fan family.

Thank you for reading her journal. I will be posting a few more times at least and then determining whether to post some of her fiction here as well.

April Valentine