Cornelisen, Ann 1926-2003
CORNELISEN, Ann 1926-2003
OBITUARY NOTICE—
See index for CA sketch: Born November 12, 1926, in Cleveland, OH; died November 12, 2003, in Rome, GA. Social worker and author. Cornelisen received considerable praise for her many books based on her life in southern Italy. After attending Vassar College from 1944 to 1946 and getting married and divorced in 1954, she decided to move to Italy for a fresh start. Her original intention was to work as an archaeologist, but after meeting Gianna Thompson, who ran the charity organization Save the Children, Cornelisen became involved in social work. She spent the 1950s and 1960s traveling around towns in Italy, where she would establish children's nurseries for Save the Children. In addition to this valuable work, she began to write about her expatriate life and social cause in Italy. Her first book, Torregreca: Life, Death, Miracles (1969), was her most successful, though she received positive reviews for her many other publications, including Women of the Shadows (1976; republished in 2001 as Women of the Shadows: Wives and Mothers of Southern Italy), Strangers and Pilgrims: The Last Italian Migration (1980), Where It All Began, 1954 (1990), and the novels Vendetta of Silence (1971) and Any Four Women Could Rob the Bank of Italy (1983).
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2003, p. B29.
New York Times, November 14, 2003, p. A23.