Candace Eleanor Genovese: Memoriam, In Exaltation, and Dolor

Abstract

She, with customary modesty, left a mere 21-line obituary in which she named her parents, her husband, their children and spouses, their locations, and the number of her grandchildren. She cited her interest in modern history, genealogy, and organizations she had assisted and stated that her ashes would be buried in Wellesley; in Chatham, Ontario; and in Toronto. But there is so much more to tell! national newspaper of Canada, the Globe and Mail, as well as the Boston Globe, carried articles on her remarkable career. Her son, Steven, provides a blog at http://celeanorgenovese.blogstream.com/. Eleanor Genovese served as Managing Editor of this journal with painstaking competence, deep interest, and innovative intelligence for seven years, although first listed as Assistant Editor beginning with the January 1989 issue. She participated in every aspect of the work entailed in its production. Her talents for organizing and recording the data on the movement of manuscripts through the mill of publishing were critically required. In keeping with a shared view of how the world should function, we had equal (minimum wage) salaries. She had always worked hard for women's causes, such as raising money for scholarships through the American Association of University Women, and in the reading and sorting out the over 1,000 entries to the Justice for Homemakers--Babson-Bernays Competition, which now reside in the Schlesinger Library. It was fitting that the flags on the Mrs. Helena Kaushik Women's College in India flew at half-mast and that the Massachusetts Senate adjourned in her honor after her untimely death due to failures of medical personnel: there is a Genovese Room at the Indian college, and it is no accident that the Graduate School at Babson College became co-ed to lead the whole college to this enlightened status while I, her husband, served as dean and founder. Her talents had been instilled and enhanced by her devoted parents, Candace Crafts Moorhouse, a patient and dedicated teacher of children with special needs, and Douglas Moorhouse, farmer, foreman, journalist, and chief turnkey of Essex County Gaol in Windsor, Ontario, and a dedicated Dickens scholar. Eleanor's weekly trips with her father to the library allowed her only three books, which she usually finished on the way home. Three books a week and many magazines were about her weekly quota for the rest of her life. She was an eclectic and voracious reader, often polishing off the entire efforts of a newly discovered and now favored author. A detective story was devoured in two hours. She was an interesting and constant tutor to friends and family. On a personal note, I was introduced to a vivacious beautiful redhead by mutual friends on December 9, 1940 at a spot I can indicate on the Hart House side of University College of the University of Toronto. I walked her home to her residence on Bloor Street ever so slowly and arranged a first date, during which I told her we were to be married. It was gratifying to find a bookmark in a book of poetry on her bedside table marking Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. first stanza reads: Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove, That valleys, groves, hills and fields, That woods, or steepy mountain yields. This was my proposal to Eleanor, and she did, and we did. I think she married me because I did what was so beautifully advised in South Pacific: Once you have found her, never let her go! Dean of Women of Victoria College informed her that she had more late leaves than any other girl in the college! Before we moved to Massachusetts, Eleanor taught high school in Canada and worked for the Ontario Department of Education and for the Executive and Professional Branch of the Canadian Employment Service. She was a Great Books discussion leader, and gave adult education courses in world affairs. …