We regret to pass on the news that one of Emerson’s founding members, Jane Tunison Backstrom has died. She died in Baltimore, MD on Monday, September 18, 2023, at the age of 91. She was born in 1931 in Prince Georges County, Maryland to Jesse D. Tunison and Louise Heath Tunison. While still an infant her family moved to East Brunswick, New Jersey and at a young age she saw the first-hand impact of World War 2 on the lives of Americans. Her father served in the Merchant Marines during the war and her family grew Victory Gardens to make ends meet.
Upon graduating High School and Junior College, Jane moved to Houston, Texas with her sister Ellen. She studied art with the late renowned artist Joseph Albers. In the 1950’s, Houston was booming from the oil industry, and she quickly found work as a graphic designer and settled into life when she met her husband, James Backstrom at a local church dance. Jim was serving in the Merchant Marines and working out of the port of Galveston.
Jane and Jim were married and became involved in the local Unitarian Universalist community. They had three children: Jim, Mary, and Will and in early 1971 relocated to Maryland so Jim could be closer to the ports of Baltimore and New York. While living in Hagerstown, Jane was active in local efforts to enact the Equal Rights Amendment, learned to play golf, and was instrumental in the growth of the Hagerstown Unitarian Church. After their children left home, Jim retired from the Merchant Marines and they eventually moved to Lakeland, Florida to be near their oldest son Jim and his family.
While in Florida, Jane’s passion for art flourished. She developed deep friendships with regional artists and focused on collecting Folk Art from the Southeast. She put her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art History to good use and wrote about, lectured, and curated exhibitions on Folk Art, and donated works from her collection to art museums in Florida.
In 2008 Jim passed away after a long illness and Jane moved to Charlestown Retirement Community in Baltimore to be near son Will in Baltimore and her daughter Mary in New Jersey. Jane’s outgoing personality won her many friends at Charlestown and she was active in the Unitarian congregation, the Book Review, and also presented a lecture series on Folk Art. Jane loved visiting the American Visionary Art Museum and became friends with the founder Rebecca Alban Hoffberger. Jane had known many of the artists whose works were featured in the museum. It was a very meaningful place to her.
She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of over fifty years, James Howard Backstrom Sr, her daughter-in-law, Gina Luna Backstrom and her four siblings: Donald Tunison, Alice Burt, Ellen Newberry, and John Tunison. She is survived by her three children: James Backstrom, Jr. of Atlanta, GA, Will Backstrom and his wife Tracy Lambros of Columbia, MD, daughter Mary Backstrom and her wife Cindy Lukenda of Bradley Beach, NJ and two grandchildren, Kylie and Shawn Backstrom.
In lieu of flowers donations please consider a donation in Jane’s memory to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD Website Link to AVAM- https://www.avam.org/legacy-giving
Jane was a charter member of Emerson
