Annabel Lee Nugent Gerstad, poet, therapist and free spirit, passed away on January 1st, 2010 in Kingston Hospital, at age 84, four years after her diagnosis with bile duct cancer.
Most recently, Lee had been a resident of the Ferncliff Nursing Home for the last two years, where she was somewhat of a renegade, “escaping” as often as she could (much to the staff’s chagrin) to take walks on the grounds to admire and photograph nature. She was always on the lookout for rides into Rhinebeck to her favorite haunts, the health food store, the public library, and twelve-step meetings, which she still attended even after four decades of continuous sobriety. Prior to Ferncliff, she lived on her own in and around Woodstock, where she was pursuing alternative health remedies for her cancer, and “thumbing it” to get around to her appointments. Prior to her diagnosis, she lived part time in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and part time in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Most of her adult life, she lived in New York City. She grew up in Bel Air, California.
As a young woman, Lee was in the USO during WWII with her husband John, and pursued an acting career, until she became a full time mother. In her later years, she went back to school and got a Masters degree, and began a practice as a therapist. She believed in the mind-body-spirit connection and used many treatment modalities, including Rubenfeld Synergy, Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais Method. Throughout it all, from a very young age and up until her last trip to the hospital, she was an avid reader and writer of poetry. She self-published one book of her poetry, and loved to share poetry with others. While at Ferncliff, she joined a memoir writing group and wrote a few short stories about her youth, and had started to write a novel, which was to be situated in the Hudson Valley. She also joined the Rhinebeck Choral Club, which she enjoyed greatly.
Lee was pre-deceased by her husband of 36 years at the time of his death, John Leif Gerstad, an actor, director and playwright in NYC on December 1, 1981. She is survived by her three children, Heidi, Jonathan and Robin, her sister Nancy Crawford, two cousins, one niece and four nephews, and many friends and colleagues.
Lee was buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY on January 8, 2010, in the plot with her parents, Norma Lee and Elliot Nugent, an actor, director and playwright of some note in the early 20th century. No service was held. Since her friends and family are spread all over the continent, a “virtual” memorial seemed more appropriate. Please leave your email address if you would like to be notified of the future development of a website in her honor. Thank you for your condolences and kind remembrances.
