Former Librarian Judy Wallace Remembered For Her Energy, Passion

by Alan Pollock

            HARWICH — Judy Wallace, a well-known singer and songwriter and the former director of the Brooks Free Library, died at her home in Mattapoisett Saturday after a nine-year battle with brain cancer.  She was 54.

            Judith Ester Wallace was born in Southington, Conn., and attended local schools and Greer Academy in upstate New York.  She began singing at a young age and performed locally with her sisters as “The Wallace Warblers.”

            At age 16, she hitchhiked to the West Coast and spent time in California and northwestern Montana before returning to the East and moving to Wellfleet.  She began collaborating with many local musicians including her future husband, Hamilton Kahn.  Their fist son, Ian, was born in 1976.  Matthew, their second son, was born in 1982.  They divorced in 1991. 

            Mrs. Wallace enjoyed a long career as an accomplished professional musician.  In addition to her vocal talent, she was a skilled guitarist and harmonica player and gifted song writer.  By the mid-1980s she had established The Judy Wallace Group, a changing cast of some of the area’s best musicians including Lisa Brown, Tom Fenton, Gary Locke, Bruce Abbott, Dick Wetmore, Mike Taylor, Tom Filogomo, Paul Nossiter and Rick Arnoldi, among others.  The group was noteworthy and built a following by appealing to audiences of all ages, playing a combination of swing, blues, and more contemporary styles.  Mrs. Wallace later collaborated with her husband, David Gries, and many other accomplished South Coast musicians, with live performances continuing throughout her battle with brain cancer.  

            Mrs. Wallace was also a great lover of books, and in the 1980s resumed her formal education, earning degrees from Cape Cod Community College, UMASS Dartmouth and Simmons College, before becoming Library Director at Brooks Free Library in Harwich in 1995.  Taking the place of former librarian Betsy Ferris, she oversaw the renovation and expansion of the library, including its temporary relocation to a shopping plaza in Harwich Port.  Mrs. Wallace also helped lead efforts to raise money to properly equip and furnish the expanded library.

            Allin Thompson, who was a selectman when Mrs. Wallace was hired, said her legacy lives on in the library, which is well equipped and vibrant thanks in part to her vision.

            “She was a very alive, very bright, dedicated person,” Thompson said.  “She was a pleasure to serve with because she was just so positive about everything.”

            Not long after her cancer diagnosis, Mrs. Wallace left her position in Harwich and moved to Mattapoisett, where she worked as library director.  She continued to work through her illness and treatments until several months ago.

            Survivors include her husband, David Gries; two sons, Ian Kahn and his wife Staci of South Boston and Matthew Kahn of Boston; her brother and five sisters, Sharon Scharrer of Roanoke, Va., Rose Wallace of Eastham, Gayle Wallace of Jacksonville, Fla., William Wallace of Orleans, Suzanne Wallace-Correiro of Hyannis and Tina Masciangioli of Arlington, Va.; several nieces and nephews.

            A memorial service will be held at a time and place to be announced.  Private funeral arrangements are with the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home For Funerals, 50 County Rd. (Rt. 6) Mattapoisett. Donations may be made to the Mattapoisett Library Trust P.O. Box 475, Mattapoisett, MA 02739 or to Community Nurse and Hospice Care, P.O. Box 751, Fairhaven, MA 02719.

11/20/08