Westport resident Emily Riley is the founder and CEO of Riley Strategic, a boutique PR and marketing agency.
She’s also the founder of Women in the 1%. That’s a research group exploring the fact that only 5% of the top 1% of all income earners in the US are female.
Riley developed a research project to change that. Her goal is to “provide insight into all of the women who are beating the odds, and inspire more women to do the same.”
The project includes a survey. It’s open to women only — of all income levels.
Click here to take the survey.
Emily Riley
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Fencing is a great sport. It demands creativity, technique and tempo — along with athleticism, balance, problem-solving, and much more.
On the fence about whether to look into it?
Delphine de Vore — a former world champion with the US junior women’s team, alternate for the 2024 Olympic team, Columbia University All-American and coach of the Staples High School fencing team — is opening a pop-up location: the lower level of VFW Post 399.
She offers youth classes for beginners and intermediates, and adult classes for all skills levels. They begin January 14, and run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (6 to 9 p.m.). Click here for details.
Delphine de Vore
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February is African American History Month.
It’s also the opening of MoCA\CT’s next exhibition.
“Art, Jazz & the Blues” — presented from February 26 through June 7, in partnership with the Westport Public Art Collections — highlights the connection between visual art and African American Musical traditions.
The exhibit centers on “Giants of the Blues.” Westport artist Eric von Schmidt’s remarkable portraits of blues and folk legends — currently hanging in the Staples High School auditorium lobby — will be hung, alongside over 50 other works from the WestPAC collections, the Brubeck Collection at Wilton Library, Housatonic Museum of Art, private collections and more.
The show includes live performances, artist talks, film screenings and workshops.
Related events include:
- February 26: Opening Reception, 6 to 8 p.m.; live music by Mark Naftalin.
- February 28: Film Screening: “Leadbelly” (1976), directed by Gordon Parks, 4 to 7 p.m., followed by Q-and-A with Sheila Curran Bernard, author of “Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly’s Truths from Jim Crow’s Lies.”
- March 5: Curators’ Talk with Anne Boberski and Ive Covaci, 6 to 7 p.m.; “Blues Off the Wall” with guitarist Tim Cole, 5:30 to 6 p.m.
- March 26: Community Conversation: “Jazz Inspirations,” 6 to 7 p.m., featuring a panel of musicians; “Blues Off the Wall” with Tim Cole, 5:30 to 6 p.m.
- April 9 and 11: Adult workshop with Peri Pfenninger, 12 to 2 .m.
- April 12: Brubeck Brothers Quartet, 4 to 6 p.m.
For more information, click here.
“Blues Piano Players” — one of 7 works by Eric von Schmidt that make up “Birth of the Blues.”
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Sixty-six years ago this Tuesday, a terrorist blew up a plane over North Carolina. All 34 on board were killed.
The terrorist was believed to be Julian Frank — a lawyer living in Westport.
The January 6, 1960 National Airlines flight #2511 was bound from Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in New York to Miami. At 2:38 a.m., it crashed near Wilmington, North Carolina.
The remains of one passenger — Frank — were missing from the accident site. His body was finally found, 16 miles away.
Frank’s autopsy showed that he had been killed by a dynamite explosion “originating either in his lap or (more likely) immediately under his seat.”
Investigators believed it to be a murder-suicide. Frank was under investigation for fraud and embezzlement — and had taken out large amounts of life insurance just before boarding the plane.
A number of Westporters were questioned by the FBI, regarding what they knew about Julian Frank. Yet authorities never conclusively proved he was the bomber. No charges were ever brought — and the investigation remains officially open.
On Tuesday, a memorial honoring the 34 victims was unveiled at the Bolivia (North Carolina) Fire Department. Click here for that story. (Hat tip: Steve McCoy)
A National Airlines Douglas DC-6B — the type of plane allegedly blown up by Julian Frank.
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Club203 — Westport’s social club for adults with disabilities — kicked off the new year on Tuesday, at the Westport Country Playhouse barn.
Members enjoyed interactive experiences with Sensei Palardy, face painting and mask making with MoCA\CT, and food from Calise’s Catering and Sweet P Bakery.
Click here for more information on Club203.
Club203, at the Westport Country Playhouse barn.
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This month marks the 5th anniversary of the Westport Book Shop’s Short Story Club.
To celebrate for their January 21 (6 p.m.) meeting, they’ll read an assortment of stories about books:
📖 “A General in the Library” by Italo Calvino (1953)
📖 “The Kugelmass Episode” by Woody Allen (1977)
📖 “Exchange” by Ray Bradbury (1996)
📖 “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” by Ken Liu (2012)
Registration is required. Call 203-349-5141, or email RSVP@westportbooksaleventures.org.
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Westport Police made 1 custodial arrest between December 31 and January 6.
A 49-year-old Philadelphia man was charged with conspiracy to commit larceny and conspiracy to commit identity theft, following an investigation into a 2023 complaint that an IRS estate tax refund check of over $13 million had been intercepted from the mail. The man received a subsequent fraudulent check for $4 million. He was released on $50,000 bond. Additional arrests are expected.
Westport Police also issued these citations:
- Failure to renew registration: 7 citations
- Texting while driving: 4
- Speeding: 2
- Traveling unreasonably fast: 1
- Failure to yield right of way: 1
- Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 2
- Operating a motor vehicle without a license: 1
- Improper use of markers: 1
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Longtime Westporter Marjorie Dunham, died peacefully in Norwalk Hospital on Friday after a long illness, with family members at her side. She was 89.
After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, After graduating, she married Christopher Dunham and worked at Equitable Life Assurance Society in New York.
In 1962 she and her husband moved to Westport. She was active in Visiting Homemakers and Friends of Sherwood Island State Park, and served as Saugatuck Elementary School PTA president and vice chair of the Westport Recreation Commission.
Marge enjoyed foreign travel, and played tennis, golf and softball until late in life.
She worked as a computer aide at Bedford Junior High School in the late 1970s, introducing students to BASIC programming.
When her children were in college she enrolled in the graduate program at Fairfield University, earning a master’s in computer science in 1983.
Marge then worked for 18 years as a local area network officer at Peoples Bank in Bridgeport. After retirement, she spent several years as a library assistant at Fairfield County schools.
She was predeceased by older sister Sylvia Corliss King. Survivors include her husband; children Douglas, William (Melanie Rogers) and Anne; granddaughter Courtney; brother William Corliss, Jr. (Linda Boothe); a niece, 3 nephews and several grand-nieces and grand0nephews.
A memorial service is set for Saugatuck Congregational Church on Saturday (January 10, 11 a.m.. Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to the Mount Holyoke Fund for general scholarship aid, or to American Cancer Society.
Marge Dunham
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We often see deer in the woods. And crossing roads.
This one — the star of today’s “Westport … Naturally” feature — felt right at home on the front steps of a Saugatuck Island home.
(Photo/Yulee Aronson)
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And finally … about Emily Riley’s research into women and their earnings:
(We work hard for the money too! Please click here, to make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work. Thank you.)
