Jay
Karl Stevens, 71, died unexpectedly on February 19, 2025.
Jay
was born on November 11, 1953, in Springfield, Vt., to Karl and
Patricia Stevens. Born into a long line of Vermont farmers, Jay
attended school in Springfield and graduated from Kimball
Union Academy before attending the University of Vermont.
While
at UVM he met the love of his life, Sara DeGennaro. The couple
traveled the world together and lived in the fun and danger of Los
Angeles and New York City during the gritty ’70s, marrying in 1980.
In the mid-’80s, they returned to Vermont and raised their kids on
the Stevens’ family farm in Weathersfield Bow, where he lived the
rest of his life in rural idyll.
Jay
was a writer, poet, journalist and social historian. He wrote several
books, including Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream,
Drumming at the Edge of Magic and Planet Drum, and was
a noted expert and lecturer on states of consciousness, the history
of psychedelics and the radical politics of the 1960s. He released
two albums of his spoken word poetry set to music, Dance House and Orphic Revival.
Yankee
by birth and temperament, Jay was equally skilled at composing a
sonnet or making maple syrup. Like most of his tribe, he was a gifted
storyteller and was friends with many idiosyncratic characters. He
was a man who equally enjoyed the solitude of the woods and a damn
good party.
He
never met a cat who didn’t love him.
He
is fiercely missed.
He
is survived by his wife of 45 years, Sara; son, Zach Stevens (Lauren
Ballard); daughter, Alexandra Stevens (Steven Hinz); brother, Warren
Stevens (Paula Stevens); grandchildren, Sequoia, Canyon and Asa; and
his nieces and nephews.
A
celebration of Jay’s life will occur in August; the date is still
to be announced.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2025.