Ann Fox Chandonnet

In recent years, I have been able to connect with the creative world of my Lowell State / Class of 1964 classmate writer/ poet Ann Fox Chandonnet, through her editor at Loom Press – my longtime friend and colleague Paul Marion. Connections were hit and miss and those years since the mid-1960s passed too quickly. I knew she had health challenges – as do we all.

Nonetheless, I am shocked and saddened to read of the passing of my old friend and Lowell State College Class of 1964 fellow alum … Poet, teacher, freelance writer, editor, columnist, cook, wife, mother, gardener, seamstress – she did it all… she was so smart … she was a role model for me as soon as we met in 1960 in our Secondary Ed/ English section in Cobun Hall … She and her future husband Fern were quite an unlikely match but their union lasted … I suppose our friendship was also a bit unlikely. The quiet but intellectual girl from Marsh Hill Farm in Dracut and the talkative, opinionated girl from Lowell via Notre Dame Academy seem an unlikely pair. In fact, Fern called me “sister Kirwin” playing up that difference … that NDA thing. But we were in that small Secondary Education section – most aiming for a career in teaching … we were writers although my attempts were doggerel compared to Ann’s. I was more Campus Star and she was Pegasus! She was the Editor and I was the business manager of the campus literary magazine. Along with our section-mate Mary Jo Fisher (later Austin), I was a campus activist. Ann had other interests and obligations. But there were connections! We were both the oldest in a family of five and knew about obligations. We were both close to and greatly influenced by a grandmother (in my case two grandmothers.)

I remember being a guest in Ann and Fern’s apartment – they were just newlyweds living on Middlesex Street in Lowell – I think Bill was with me – we were all just starting out. We all went on our way.

Ann Fox Chandonnet made a special mark with writing, her observations, her tales and story, her views and interpretations of what she saw – whether in Alaska, North Carolina, Missouri, or at Marsh Hill Farm. She was an award-winning and professional recognized writer and observer.

Ann’s Dracut/ Marsh Hill Farm and family roots anchored her life… I look back on those early days and think “Ann was bound to go far from the pages of the Pegasus literary magazine.” I was lucky to know her … and I mourn her passing. My condolences to her family.

—Marie Sweeney

Here’s a link to Ann’s collection of her best poems published in 2023 by Loom Press.