Miriam Patchen (née Oikemus; September 28, 1914 – March 6, 2000) was the wife and muse of poet and novelist

Kenneth Patchen Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of Will ...

, who dedicated each of his more than 40 books to his wife. He also wrote and published a large number of love poems for Miriam, including well-known pieces such as ''23rd Street Runs Into Heaven''.

Personal life

Miriam Oikemus was born in

Belmont, Massachusetts Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a western suburb of Boston and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 27,295, an increase of 10.4% from 2010. H ...

, on September 28, 1914. She met Patchen in Boston in 1933 at a friend's Christmas party. At the time, Miriam was an undergraduate at

Massachusetts State College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the Ma ...

in Amherst. The two kept in touch and Patchen started sending her the first of many love poems. They soon fell in love and decided to get married. First Patchen took her to meet his parents in

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

, then they got married on June 28, 1934, in nearby

Sharon, Pennsylvania Sharon is a city in western Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city, located along the banks of the Shenango River on the state border with Ohio, is about northeast of Youngstown, about southeast of Cleveland and about northwe ...

. After their wedding, they spent much of their marriage living in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

. Then they relocated to the West Coast, living in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and later, towards the end of Patchen's life, they settled into a cottage house in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

where Patchen died. Miriam was Patchen's strongest supporter and stood by him as the couple struggled financially throughout their marriage. In addition to their financial struggles, the couple had to contend with serious medical problems as well. Kenneth Patchen struggled with chronic pain from a back injury for many years before he finally became incapacitated when his injury was severely aggravated by a botched surgery in 1959. Immobilized by the injury, Patchen's sole caretaker was his wife, and since he was bedridden, he wrote and painted poems from his bed with her assistance. To help make ends meet at this point, Miriam also had to take a job working in retail at a local department store. At the same time, Miriam also had serious health problems, including diabetes and multiple sclerosis. After her husband's death on January 8, 1972, she became an activist for peace and an advocate for her husband's poetry. Laurent B. Frantz, a civil rights activist, became her companion until he died on September 20, 1998. In 1998, Miriam was the subject of a short documentary film by Kim Roberts titled ''Miriam Is Not Amused''. She died in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, on March 6, 2000, aged 85.

References

External links

Obituary
in

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

(UK) by Marcus Williamson
Kenneth Patchen Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patchen, Miriam 1914 births 2000 deaths People from Belmont, Massachusetts American activists American people of Finnish descent