Jean L. Cobb died on January 13, 2016 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 90.
She was born on April 20, 1925 in Newnan, Georgia to Mildred and Clifford Loftin, who worked, respectively, as a teacher and a structural steel salesman and inventor. Young Jean spent her earliest years in a house with three generations of women, which provided a lifelong lesson in female strength.
Harrison McIntosh, celebrated ceramicist and longtime Claremont resident, died on Thursday, January 21, 2016 in Claremont. He was 101.
Mr. McIntosh was part of southern California’s “revolution in clay,” which in the 1950s elevated ceramics from mere craft to fine art.
Mr. McIntosh made well over 9,000 pieces over the years, drawing inspiration from the Bauhaus movement, Asian pottery and Swedish ceramics.
Sydney Lynn Blanton, a longtime Claremont resident and owner of the Village clothing boutique Amelie, died at home on January 6, 2016, surrounded by family. She was 55.
She was born in San Luis Obispo County on September 8, 1960. Her family moved to Covina when she was 10 years old and she attended schools in the Covina school district, graduating from Royal Oak High School in 1978. She studied at Cal State Fullerton and later at Mt. San Antonio College.
Gerald M. Ackerman, a distinguished art historian, died peacefully at his Claremont home on Friday, January 1, 2016. He was 87.
He was born in Alameda, California and grew up in Santa Cruz, the son of Alois and Eva Sadler Ackerman. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1952 and studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.
Patti Mattison Livingston, a resident of Claremont for more than 70 years, died at her home in Upland on December 14, 2015. She was 92.
She was born in Medford, Oregon on March 12, 1923, the only child of Helen and Allen Mattison. She grew up in Medford and in several towns in California. Her father was an engineer who helped construct high power lines across the western United States. The family often moved with him as he changed job sites, and Patti had to change schools almost every year.
