Mary
Jane Phillips Dickerson died peacefully in her Jericho Center, Vt.,
home on Thursday, October 3, 2024, of heart and lung disease. Born on
September 29, 1937, to Angus Peter Phillips, a merchant farmer, and
Sue Sherrill Phillips, a schoolteacher, Mary Jane was raised in the
village of Cameron in the Sandhills of North Carolina. During her
childhood in this close-knit farming community, Mary Jane developed a
passion for gardening and a keen appreciation for small-town lore
that eventually led to her fascination with William Faulkner’s
Yoknapatawpha novels and a career as a college English teacher and
poet.
Mary
Jane earned an undergraduate degree in English and history in 1959 at
what was then the Woman’s College of the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro. There she began to write poems in creative
writing classes with Randall Jarrell, who steered her toward writing
about her native North Carolina Sandhills. Mary Jane went on to earn
a master’s degree in English at the University of North Carolina in
summer 1960. At Chapel Hill, she went on a legendary first date to a
Robert Frost reading with a lean, witty and diffident fellow graduate
student from Vermont, A. Inskip Dickerson Jr., whom she would marry
in 1961. They lived in Chapel Hill, where Mary Jane continued
graduate study in English part time with the births of their
children, Bert and Ann Meigs, in 1962 and 1965, while Skip completed
his doctoral studies. They moved to Vermont in 1966 for Skip’s
position as an assistant professor in English at the University of
Vermont and to Jericho Center in 1968, where they bought a
dilapidated brick farmhouse in the center of town, whose renovation
and landscaping became their shared labor of love.
From
the beginning of her time in Vermont, Mary Jane — an elegant and
refined feminist from the South who embraced all that Vermont had to
offer — cut a striking figure. She contributed tirelessly to the
English department’s program during her 34-year career at the
University of Vermont, where she served as the director of freshman
English, associate director of writing and, in 1996, associate
professor of English. Mary Jane developed courses in women’s
autobiography and African American literature (UVM’s first) on the
undergraduate and graduate levels. In 1997, she was awarded the
George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award and was thrilled to be
invited in her final years of teaching to Japan and South Africa as a
visiting scholar. In 2016, she was inducted as a fellow in the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Though a prolific writer and a
dedicated teacher, Mary Jane most loved mentoring young writers,
which she continued to do until shortly before she died.
Skip’s
untimely death in 1995 helped Mary Jane decide to take an early
retirement in 2000 to have plenty of time for her family, friends,
travel, and creative and civic interests. During her long and robust
retirement, she taught regular classes on reading and writing poetry
at local libraries and was a writer/faculty member at the New England
Young Writers’ Conference at Breadloaf; published two volumes of
poetry; served on numerous boards and committees, including the
Deborah Rawson Memorial Library in Underhill, Vt., and the Fleming
Museum board; and participated in civic work with the Democratic
Party and in her beloved Jericho Center as an elected justice of the
peace, treasurer of the Jericho Preservation Association and a
Jericho Democratic Caucus member. Perhaps her proudest accomplishment
in retirement was cofounding Sundog Poetry, whose mission is to
support Vermont poets.
Mary
Jane’s zest for life, empathy, eloquence and generous spirit made a
powerful impression on those who were lucky enough to know her. Her
gardens, cultivated with care and imagination over 56 years, reflect
her magnificent aesthetic sense that seemed to radiate from her at
all times. She championed her children and grandchildren in all of
their endeavors, valuing each child’s particular talents and
interests with equal enthusiasm. Even during her most difficult days
at the end of her life, Mary Jane maintained a profound sense of
gratitude for all of her blessings. Her survivors include her sister,
Ann Phillips McCracken of Sanford, N.C.; son, Albert I. Dickerson
(Sarah) of Huntington, Vt., and their children, Angus Dickerson
(Hannah) of Huntington and Mary Jo of Santa Fe, N.M.; daughter, Ann
Meigs Dickerson (Azzam Elayan) of Hillsborough, N.J., and their
children, Adam and Leila Elayan; nieces Sherrill McCracken and son
Jack Richardson, Sarah McCracken Cobb (Ken) and daughters Rebecca and
Caroline (Donovan), and Mary Ann McCracken Compton (Will) and their
children, James Webb (Ginny), Peter and daughter Anna;
brother-in-law, Gregory Dickerson (Deena); nephew, Greg Dickerson
(Marguerite), and their children, Lily and Ben; and niece Kirsten
Dickerson and her daughter, Charlotte.
To
make a charitable donation in Mary Jane’s honor, please consider
Sundog Poetry, or the Mary Jane Dickerson Scholarship fund at the University of Vermont.
Checks may be addressed to the UVM Foundation (with Mary Jane
Dickerson English Department Scholarship Fund written in the memo
line), Grasse Mount, 411 Main St., Burlington, VT 05401.
A
celebration of Mary Jane’s life will be held on Saturday, October
26, 2024, noon, at her Jericho home.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2024.
A beautiful tribute to a beautiful person. What a gift she was in my life and countless others. She mentored me over 35 years. Love to all who are grieving. Eliza Anderson
She is the reason I can call myself an author! I am so grateful to all that you have given me.
I took the African American Literature course she taught when I was a student at UVM. She displayed empathy for the suffering of Africans lived experience on American soil, and conveyed the rich diaspora of black and brown influences in our cultures. It was her reinforcement of my strong writing skills, that encouraged me to lean into that form of expression.