Alice E. Powell

Alice Edna Powell (Rosen) of Hampton, VA was the first child of James Rollin Powell and Edna Alice Nims (Powell). She was born June 3, 1941, in Columbia, SC She died April 10 2023. She married Cliff Rosen of Marion, VA on June 3, 1962. In March of 1964, the couple moved to Hampton, VA for Cliff’s new job at “the shipyard.” Now having all our evenings free, Alice and I both began working to help other groups. Alice had a degree in art from the University of South Carolina, so her “extracurricular” accomplishments were decidedly different from mine. Her first was in set design with Peninsula Community Theatre where she designed sets for many successful productions. She expanded this work into other venues such as local opera, children’s theater, and other places and audiences.

Alice began working in her kitchen with good effect, winning the Times-Herald’s cooking prize for a recipe for preparing Vietnamese chicken. This was also the source of her development of a cookbook for sale by the neighborhood association. She had stated, by the way! It was also the beginning of a huge cookbook collection.

This also sparked her interest in books, and hence a new public library. She and Quinby Amory were instrumental in building interest in a library-friends association to provide a “market” for library books. That worked! Still does!

Alice and Quinby then transformed their talents “around the corner,” so to speak, to the new science center. This is an important and valuable asset to the whole region, and although their help may have been late, their contributions were welcomed.

Alice was the one in our house more interested in visiting other countries and so was responsible for our adventure in the North, as we now remember it and have called it ever since. It began with our first trip to Italy, after we had “seen all the sights.” In Rome, we boarded a train northward for a visit with some of the Swedish relatives of my father. My Dad emigrated from Sweden to the US in 1914. We met three of my cousins in Copenhagen, with whom we would sail to Malmo, Sweden, the home of the cousin who owned the sailboat.

But—gloom and doom—the weather was stormy and would stay for several hours. For the two Americans, Double G and D!! The three Swedes seemed to welcome bad weather!

With a quick American greeting and farewell to the Little Mermaid, the five of us sailed into the teeth of the storm…and to the aid of a small sailboat that had just dismasted! Luckily, a powerboat beat us to the casualty and relieved our cousin captain of his nautical obligation to aid the dismasted boat. Having followed at least two car ferries, and after mooring safely at Malmo, we sat down to dinner with my cousins. To our surprise, dinner included eel-prepared three ways. After pointing out such fish were harvested from creeks along our East Coast, we discussed the likelihood one or more of these very fish may have come from the Indian River across the street from our house in Hampton, VA!

In addition to all this aid and support of other groups, and knowing the difference for example between the Kattegat and the Skagerrak, Alice also taught the children of St. Andrews Day School–and other schools—art for many years. Perhaps all of these scrapes knocks, and hard work added up to do her in. We know she had a bad heart. She succumbed to her burden in March and died on the morning of April 10. We will miss her.

I miss her.

The photo shown of Alice and Lu-Lu, our latest rescue from the pound, is a recent one taken by your neighbor, Jan Cannon. Alice had not yet adopted her “Gray phase.” Lu-Lu, thank heaven, has been adopted by our neighbor across the street, including their puppy. We were highly grateful for that.