Longchamps, Joanne de, 1923-1983

Poet Joanne de Longchamps lived in Reno, Nevada and penned poems about the Nevada landscape as well as her experiences as wife and mother. She was born Joan Cutten in Los Angeles, California in 1923. Her mother, Ruth, worked as a dancer and performer and her father worked as a building contractor. Her parents divorced when she was ten years old, and she and her mother moved in with her grandmother. At the age of 12, she and her mother traveled overseas where Joan studied painting, music, and the French language. After returning to Los Angeles, she attended Fairfax High School. After two years, she transferred to the Chouinard Art Institute where she studied watercolor and still-life painting. She then enrolled in the Los Angeles City College.

At the age of 17, Joan met Galen De Longchamps, adopted son of famed Nevada architect, Frederic De Longchamps, while on vacation in Reno, Nevada and after a long distance romance, the couple married in 1941. With the marriage, she changed her first name to Joanne and began spelling her new last name as de Longchamps, with a lower case d. After moving to Reno, she enrolled in the University of Nevada, Reno and majored in English and art. She audited many courses, but never completed her degree. She gave birth to her son, Galen Dare De Longchamps, in 1949. He committed suicide in 1976.

Joanne wrote poetry and submitted it widely. In 1942, Ladies’ Home Journal published her first nationally recognized poem. In 1954, she received the Reynolds Lyric Award from the Poetry Society of America. She authored several books of poetry. de Longchamps also became well known for her collages and exhibited her work in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the last ten years of her life, her health declined and she suffered from multiple sclerosis and cancer. The University of Nevada, Reno awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1983. She passed away at her home on November 13, 1983.

Source:

Griffin, Shaun T., "Biography." In Torn By Light: Selected Poems by Joanne de Longchamps, edited by Shaun T. Griffin, Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1993.