Constance Abernathy

Constance Abernathy (born Constance Davies June 20, 1931 – June 18, 1994) was an American architect. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Abernathy attended Cass Technical High School and University of Michigan Architecture school. She worked on a special project studying with Buckminster Fuller to create the geodesic dome egg carton form of architecture. The books she made documenting the project were recently donated to the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. She flew under the St. Louis arch in a plane with Fuller and she functioned as Fuller's secretary maintaining sections of his files and archives.^[1][2]

She married J. T. Abernathy, a potter and art professor at University of Michigan in the 1950s but their union did not last long. She left Ann Arbor, Michigan for Paris shortly after, arriving in the swinging scene of the Paris 1960s. ^[3] She worked as an architect all over Europe and married a filmmaker.

She started to collect beads and fabrics from Morocco. After her French divorce, she moved to New York City and became a jeweler in the Chelsea area. In New York City she befriended and worked with many famous artists. Among her artist friends were many well known painters and sculptors like Larry Rivers, Peter Reginato, Peter Young, Ronnie Landfield, and Dan Christensen. In the 1980s her works started to include precious gems and cast parts she created. Her big bead necklaces were collected by Clarice Cosby and many others.^[4][5]

In the early 1990s she was diagnosed with cancer and she succumbed to her illness in 1994. Before she died she had a farewell party for her closest friends; and she distributed her worldly possessions among them as her way of saying goodbye. She died two days before her 63rd birthday at home in her Chelsea apartment in New York City soon after her party. ^[6]

References

1. ^ cdlib.org website retrieved May 12, 2009
2. ^ thirteen.org website retrieved May 12, 2009
3. ^ U.Michigan archive
4. ^ Museum of Arts and Design, retrieved February 4, 2009
5. ^ Data Base, Museum of Arts and Design, retrieved February 4, 2009
6. ^ Susan Supercharged, Buckminster Fuller/ Constance Abernathy

Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan 1150 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-2113 [phone]

Persondata
Name	Abernathy, Constance
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 20, 1931
Place of birth
Date of death	June 18, 1994
Place of death