Summary
[Donna Mussenden VanDerZee] met "Van," as she affectionately calls him, in the 1970s though a mutual friend. She was a 32-year-old divorced art gallery manager with a budding interest in photography. He was a 90-year-old retired photographer who was "a good storyteller" and "loved off-color jokes."
Not everybody understood Mussenden's decision. Mussenden's mother, who eventually embraced VanDerZee, first thought that Mussenden was crazy to marry the 90-year-old. Then there were others who called her a gold-digger."I was sure he'd make it to 100," said Mussenden. She was with VanDerZee when he passed in Washington D.C., the day after receiving an honorary doctorate from Howard, Mussenden's alma mater. He was weeks shy of his 97th birthday.See the full content of this document
Extract
Donna Mussenden Vanderzee
Donna Mussenden VanDerZee stands in the middle of Sugar Hill's Essie Green Galleries surrounded by her late husband's beauty.
The 60-something-year-old widow of one of the nation's most celebrated photographers, J...See the full content of this document
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