The Reporter’s Lakeside columnist Jeanne Wilfreda Chaussee, who died suddenly on Sunday, June 9 at the age of 72, enjoyed two stints with this newspaper, the second lasting 14 years.
At times described affectionately as an artistic force of nature, she was a passionate enthusiast of Mexico, fully prepared to admonish arrogant foreigners who disregarded this country’s culture and customs. Respected for her objective theater reviews and knowledge of the performing arts, Chaussee was also an energetic promoter of charitable causes through her widely read columns and articles. Her vivacious personality and irrepressible thirst for life could often be construed as outspokenness but her loyalty and sincerity could never be questioned.
Born August 18, 1940 in Seattle, Washington, Chaussee grew up in an artistic home. War and blackouts were an integral part of her life as an infant, and from an early age her parents provided her with oil paints, brushes and sharp instruments for sculpture rather than simple crayons. Her mother demanded that each of her two daughters be able to sing well and play at least one musical instrument.
Her family remember her as a happy child, never without a playmate, not surprising since she had “dozens” of cousins – her father being one of 12 siblings.
Chaussee learned to read before entering kindergarten and at the age of seven discovered a set of rubber letters for printing and realized she could print a newspaper with them. So she produced a small newspaper of her own – complete with ads – a portent of things to come!
Chaussee began violin and piano lessons at the age of eight and played with her school orchestra from the third through ninth grade.
Later she would go on to play the piano with orchestras led by Dr. Stanley Chapel, head of the school of music at the University of Washington and conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She also studied voice and performance.
Chaussee was educated at Jane Addams Junior High School in Seattle, Bothell High School in Bothell, and the University of Montana, where she graduated in history and political science.
She married at a young age, in 1959 to Lloyd Henry Townsend, who worked in the construction industry.
They quickly produced three daughters and while Chaussee stayed at home to bring them up, she refused to take on the role of a sedentary housewife.
She had listened to her first presidential election broadcast in 1948 and, like her parents, had always been politically aware. Working with State Senator Marjorie King, Chaussee helped found Teenage Democrats in Washington State in the early 1960s. She was named State of Washington Democratic Woman of the Year in the mid 1960s.
Chaussee had taken private art classes from prominent Northwest artist Lisel Salzer and subsequently opened an art gallery in Snohomish, Washington, where she showed her own work and that of others.
After her divorce in 1975, Chaussee went back to school at Edmonds Community College to train as a travel agent but never followed this path. Instead, she worked as a management consultant, hiring and firing in the hospitality industry.
In 1980, when friends invited her to visit Mexico, she jumped at the chance to travel, first taking in Mexico City before heading west to Guadalajara, a city she said she “instantly” fell in love with.
In 1981, with the same friends, she made a permanent move to Guadalajara, along with her youngest daughter Elizabeth (Libby). She soon found a job as a teacher the city’s prestigious American School, where she stayed for the next five years, helping create many programs that are still in place today.
She taught modern European history, U.S. civics and history, comparative religions, art history and journalism, and was in charge of the year book for four years. She was elected “Teacher of the Year” three years in a row by students.
With her daughter enrolled at the school, this was a period of her life for which she always expressed special fondness.
Following her separation with her husband, Chaussee found stability in her personal life, enjoying a ten-year relationship with Paul Safstrom, an educator from Seattle. The pair parted amicably in 1986, when Safstrom decided to return to the United States.
Chaussee lived in Guadalajara at a time when the retired U.S. community in the city was at its zenith. The American Society had more than 2,000 members and many charity and cultural projects flourished, along with a thriving American Legion post.
With her artistic flair and thirst for new experiences, she became involved in English-language musical theater, putting her fine singing voice and acting skills to good use.
Her debut role was as “Bloody Mary” in an ambitious production of “South Pacific,” staged at the IMSS theater near Guadalajara’s Agua Azul Park.
More shows and roles followed at various venues, including “Harvey” and “Music Man.” She also stepped in at the last minute to make her directorial debut in “A Guy Named Jane.”
Chaussee struck up a fruitful partnership with three creative friends: Larry Greccov, Audrey Hoffnung and Andres Olivares. Together they performed dinner-theater cabaret shows, in both Guadalajara and at Lakeside. They formed the Chicken Coop Theater, performing in an refurbished barn at the San Jose del Tajo trailer park outside Guadalajara.
As the Lake Chapala area began to draw more and more retirees, the trio took their talents to lakeside, performing at the Old Posada, often with the musical accompaniment of another friend, musician Paul Vanetta. (The trio also headlined on the opening night of La Nueva Posada.) Several Noel Coward revues given by this group at this time earned high critical praise.
The performers quickly garnered an enviable reputation. One night, a special guest took his seat the audience. He was none other than famed ranchero singer Vicente Fernandez, who graciously posed with the artists for photographs after the show.
By 1986, Chaussee had joined the team of writers at the Guadalajara Colony Reporter, penning obituaries and reporting community and cultural news in the city.
She stayed for three years in her first spell with the paper, before moving to Aguascalientes with her daughter.
In this tranquil city, Chaussee settled comfortably into a life as an English teacher, working at Interlingua, where she taught the TOEFL exam for three years.
In 1993, after a few months spent in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, to be close to her friend Greccov who had moved there, she returned to Missoula, Montana, a town where she had experienced many happy times in her younger days.
Returning north allowed Chaussee to spend some quality time with her father in his final years, and reunite with her sister and many cousins. Meanwhile, she worked in a high-end retail store with the imaginative name of Crystal Clocks and Cats.
After her father died in 1998, Chaussee decided she had had enough of shoveling snow and came back to Mexico to settle in Ajijic, to where Greccov had since returned, and cousin Loren Baunsgard was now living.
Within a short time, Chaussee found herself back at the keyboard (this time a computer one rather than the electric typewriter she had used a decade earlier) writing articles for the Reporter, now under new management.
When Ruth Merrimer retired from her duties as the Lakeside columnist, Chaussee took over the paper’s two trademark columns, Laguna Chapalac and the Ribera Arts Review.
Chaussee soon stamped her formidable character on these columns, often penning sharp introductions aimed at expats who fail to respect and recognize the customs of their host country.
For the next 13 years, Chaussee, her notebook and camera in hand, was ever-present at local events, and thanks to her background in the arts, became an adroit theater reviewer, managing to find the appropriate, objective balance in her writing that befitted a critic of community-based theatrical and musical endeavors. Her prolificacy knew no bounds and she sometimes penned as many 5,000 words a week for the paper.
Always willing to boost the reach of local charities with detailed write-ups, she never failed to help out those in need in whatever way she could.
Chaussee made many friends during her time in Mexico and while she freely admitted that she could sometimes be obstinate and cantankerous, her passions and points of view were always expressed unambiguously, her laughter was infectious and her loyalty unconditional.
Chaussee is survived by three daughters: Alison Ford McKenzie (husband Mike McKenzie) of Salem, Oregon and Penn Yan, New York; Roxanne Smith (husband Tim Smith) of Enumclaw, Washington and Libby Townsend of Ajijic; as well as two grandchildren: Nathaniel and Amaria Rose Yvette Hatfield. Her sister Yvette Irene Clevish and her husband Ken Clevish also survive her, as do her former husband and Paul Safstrom.