Joyce and Randy, wedding day, 1999. Photo by Theresa Maggio. Courtesy photos.
by Melinda Moulton I first met Joyce Marcel when she interviewed me for a profile article in Vermont Business Magazine. She arrived with her husband of 20 years, Randolph T Holhut, the cover photographer for Vermont Business Magazine and news editor of The Commons. Joyce pulled up a chair to the front of my desk leaned in and unabashedly stated, “I was once a topless dancer.”
I knew we were going to hit it off. She is a little woman with a strong stature and a head of graying curly hair that frames her face full of laugh lines and sad lines. Her eyes twinkled with curiosity. It did not take long for me to know that I wanted to write a story about Joyce Marcel – Vermont’s Biographer.
Joyce Marcel was raised in Brooklyn and on the beaches of Far Rockaway, New York. A very shy and introverted kid. She shared with me that she had a miserable childhood. Her only saving grace was that she had an instinct and ability to write. She did not know this as a child, until her cousin years later reminded her that, as a teenager she wrote for the Girl Scout Magazine which was a city-wide publication.
Earl Jaguest, a teacher in her high school (who just turned 97 the day of our interview), helped to make her a journalist.
“He had an assignment where we each had to do the front page of a newspaper from Paris during the Revolution, and we could make up stories out of a “A Tale of Two Cities.” I wrote all the stories for the front page and my mother, Rose Kagan, a dancer and choreographer, put on a night cap and knitted. I took her picture pretending she was Madame Defarge. This is still talked about. People knew I had a natural ability to write at a young age.”
When Joyce was four her mother took her to the library for her first library card. She read the entire children’s collection at the Far Rockaway Library and then moved on to the adult section by the time she was seven.
Joyce’s Dad, Harry Kagan, owned an Army and Navy Store in Brooklyn and worked six days a week, 12 hours a day. He was rarely home. Her mother was a stage performer. She starred in plays for 35 years and did her last one when she was 91 years old.
Joyce and her mom Rose Kagan in 1990.
Joyce reflected, “My mother was a star, she was radiant and beautiful, but for a shy and not- very-attractive kid like me, she was a pain in the ass.”
Joyce wrote a lot about her Mom over the years and reluctantly admitted to me that “in the end, my mother was proud of me.”
Joyce told me this was the first time anyone had interviewed her. The pressure was on to be sure! How shall I capture this woman who colors outside the lines and how shall I convey her uniqueness?
Joyce shared with me that in high school she was addicted to Sherlock Holmes and spent a lot of her time trying to solve mysteries. Of course, English was her best language. She spent two years at Emerson College and finished up her degree at Brooklyn College and then obtained her Masters at the University of Indiana in Theatrical Costume Design. She designed theatrical costumes from the time she was 16 until she was 34.
Joyce was a loner, and she admitted that she was not close to anyone growing up. In my research and talking to folks who know Joyce there was a bit of a disconnect with where she saw herself and where others saw her.
After graduating from the University of Indiana Joyce fell in love with Jerry Marcel, a set designer and for two years she worked with him designing sets and costumes at Brooklyn College. When Jerry received a three-year scholarship to Stanford they were married.
They did theater, festivals and avant-garde plays in San Francisco from 1964 to 1969. Joyce recalls “you could not be in a better place. We had acid, the Grateful Dead playing on the streets, Janice Joplin at the same parties, free speech, the Black Panthers. It was amazing to be in Haight Ashbury for this period”.
She added, “The last job I had was as a topless dancer!” She put away enough money to buy a Volkswagen convertible and she and Jerry took off for a year on the road in Europe.
“It was the most amazing year and you could not afford to do that today. We both were designers and we were trained for decades watching and learning about costumes and set designs by looking at art. We wanted to see the paintings for real. So that’s what we did. We made a tour to every museum in Europe. We only came back to New York because Brooklyn College called Jerry and offered him a teaching job.”
Joyce and Jerry were designing for Off-Off-Broadway actors. During this time, Joyce read the book “Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan and recalled “it hit me like a ton of bricks that I was not at fault for my unhappiness.”
Within a year she left Jerry and theatrical costume design and she became the man she wanted to marry: Jack Kerouac, writer and pioneer of the Beat Generation.
For the next 14 years Joyce was on the road. She admits to being homeless while embracing her adventures. She stayed in very cheap hotels mostly in South America, occasionally visiting the States. She was smuggling handicrafts and pre-Columbian art back to New York City and sending the checks to Lima, Peru.
Martha Purmalis has been Joyce’s friend since 1977. She recalled, “Joyce appeared unexpectedly at the little house I rented outside of Sorata, Bolivia. I let her in. An ex-patriate we both knew had been murdered in La Paz and his widow and friends arrived at my house looking for refuge. It happened that Joyce was staying at a hotel in the town, heard that they were with me, and came to offer her support. Our friendship has extended over many years. We have talked pre-Colombian weavings and juvenile justice; taken up and later put down our assorted addictions, taken skydiving classes, and long walk ‘n talks in northern forests; watched snakes mate in Florida, paddled the Panama Canal in a cayuco, competed in swimming and running and triathlons, and even, on occasion, slammed a door in the other’s face as we stalked off with our ire.”
Martha assured me that the friendship which has been long and rich for more than 40 years continues to flourish.
Joyce in Panama, 1985.
Joyce spent four years in Panama teaching English as a second language and learning how not to be a bum.
“I was looking for a way to come back to my own country with some kind of honor. I had no money. I had no career. I had nothing. I was estranged from my family.”
She read a blurb in the back of a magazine about The School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and it seemed as if they taught people how to be expatriates.
As Joyce recalls, “I thought that I should get a degree in something and then I could go back to Panama or someplace else and just live an ex-pat life. So, I landed in Brattleboro, Vermont. And, I have never left.”
When Joyce came to Vermont she fell apart and had a nervous breakdown and as she explains it “turns out culture shock is real even if it is your own culture.”
Joyce got a job working at the Brattleboro Reformer and was the lead writer for four years. The editor of the paper, Norman Runnion, said she was the “best damn writer who ever walked through the doors of that paper.”
In the second year that Joyce was working for the Brattleboro Reformer, Norman Runnion hired a second-string sports guy named Randy Holhut.
Joyce recalls “Randy, Tim McQuiston and I became roommates. Tim went on to buy Vermont Business Magazine, and Randy became my husband and we have been together for 30 years. In a period of one year everything fell into place for me.”
After the Reformer, Joyce became a freelance writer. She has been supporting herself as a freelance journalist for 25 years. She believes she may be the oldest living Vermont journalist who is still working.
Joyce Marcel has written for many magazines and newspapers including the Boston Globe and the New York Post. She has won multiple awards from the Alliance of Area Business Publications, Vermont Press Association, and the New England Newspaper and Press Association.
She has written several books including one called “A Thousand Words or Less” (Favorite Columns 1996 – 2005).
Joyce shared with me that her work is to translate reality into language.
“Rhythm is essential. I hear rhythm when I write. There are a few things I do before each interview. The first is a ton of research. I go five or six Google pages back to see if anything has been written about my subject. I get the outlines of their life story down. I come into the interview knowing everything and nothing, and I tell their story using as many quotes as I can.”
Tim McQuiston who co-owns the Vermont Business Magazine and has known Joyce for over 30 years considers her “a damn good reporter – her natural writing skills and talent as a wordsmith made even an ordinary news story jump off of the newsprint. Her true grit is writing about people and this is the kind of writing that, quite frankly, does not exist in Vermont anymore except for Joyce. Her profiles have always been one of, if not, the most popular feature of our paper. She has an ability to reveal the person and Joyce always seems surprised that people reveal so much of themselves to her. You cannot teach that kind of ability to connect.”
Tim continues, “Joyce is able to sneakily disrobe someone of whatever it is they have cloaked themselves in. I don’t know how she does it.”
Kim Nace, a classmate, friend and co-founder and executive director of the Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro has known Joyce since 1987. They have been walking partners for 30 years.
She shared with me that, “I have known Joyce since her red flaming hair trailed behind her, making her recognizable blocks away. Joyce is talented, contemplative, and wise. I trust her perspective as a strong, feminist, empowered, creative person. She loves horses and racing, and watching the World Series and all kinds of Olympic athletes. She sews and knows fabric and fashion and she knows dance and art and loves to go to New York museums and shows. Joyce speaks her mind and knows what is important – just ask her and she will give you her opinion and it will be well thought out.”
Lynn Barrett who is the Publisher of the Vermont Arts & Living Magazine and Editor of the Okemo Valley Magazine added, “Joyce is the kind of writer who has a unique touch. The stories she used to write about her mother in the Brattleboro Reformer moved people so much so that she became a celebrity. She couldn’t walk down the street without someone giving her a hug or commenting on her latest column. Joyce is a protector – a mama bear – of those she loves, especially of her husband Randy. The two of them have the most beautiful love affair. It is time that Joyce gets the recognition she deserves. She is an extremely talented interviewer and writer … a real pro.”
Andrea Nemetz, Joyce’s roommate, friend, and international fundraiser from New York City remembers, “Both Joyce and I lost family members at the same time, we went through that together, and it came at a time of a lot of changes. What I love about Joyce is that she is intellectually curious and she is provocative in conversation. She is a voracious reader and she reads about everything. You can talk to her about very deep issues, nothing is off limits. She likes to figure things out and challenge people and challenges your thoughts. Joyce’s interview genius is that she ferrets out what is behind the obvious narrative and she has a broad reading audience. Her stories are full of emotion and she does a great service for Vermont.”
Joyce in South America, 1977.
Julie Lineberger, co-founder of LineSync Architecture in Brattleboro, remembers meeting Joyce around 1988.
“I was intrigued to find the nuggets most writers do not think to even ask, let alone include, in a Joyce Marcel profile. What drew me in completely was a piece she wrote about her amazing mother’s role in theater and her effect on many people throughout her life. Joyce touches many people so positively. Joyce became a poker pal. She has a great sense of humor, wide knowledge, and we always have connections that pop up, such as our similar travels as young women through Ecuador and Peru. Her depth of coverage of “The Christine Chronicles” regarding Christine David Hallquist’s groundbreaking run for Governor of Vermont is a story that truly needs to be told and Joyce is the one to do so.”
As we got to the end of our interview, I asked Joyce who she was writing about now and she said, “Rick Schneider, the President of Norwich University – an amazing man, I love him to death and am enjoying writing about him. I am completely immersed in his life right now.”
I asked Joyce if she had any advice for younger women, younger journalists, this next generation.
She hummed and hawed for a few moments and then she said “live your own life – cut out the Online stuff, the Instagram stuff, the Kardashian crap, don’t watch too much television – try to live a sophisticated life – never watch reality television. Just cut out that loud noise and live authentically.”
She added, “I sound like a real tool for saying this.”
Well, from this writer’s vantage point, Joyce Marcel is a magnificent tool – a claw hammer pulling out all the nails from conventional thinking.
She continued, “When I was really young, I found these five principles of Buddhism and I wrote them down very conscientiously and it turns out I’ve been living my life according to these principles. The I-Ching said to me that the highest earthly values must be sacrificed to the divine, but the truly divine does not manifest itself apart from man. That meant a lot for me. We need to know that life is suffering. That it is eternal desire. The will to have and be is the cause of suffering and that desire can be broken by walking the right fold path with right intention – right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right awareness.”
Joyce is planning to finish drafts of four books she is working on. She is the only writer in her entire family and it is a large family. She has stories that go back six generations and she is hoping to finish them before she dies. She also wants to write about her own life.
Joyce Marcel has written profiles on Vermonters for the past two decades and she has written hundreds of them.
She is surprised she is not running out of people to write about.
At the end of our interview Joyce became very introspective, “I was putting out story after story after story of people who were doing incredible things, whether they were in business or in the arts, and my snotty assumption was that artists were better than businesspeople. But this opinion got blown up because when people told me their stories about how they started their companies, they were using exactly the same creative urges that I use when I write or when I designed costumes. Business is just as creative as anything else. Someone achieved something – they did something wonderful – something that had never been done before. They made bee wax wraps that keep food fresh, or manufacture the best darn socks in the world, or run a company that is promoting renewable energy. There is so much accomplishment and achievement in Vermont. Putting these stories out there is powerful and it affects people. That is what I see as the through line to all of this, I am celebrating achievement.”
Melinda Moulton is CEO of Main Street Landing in Burlington.