by Tod Jonson
 |
Published author Neill James lived for a full century. In late 1994, a century closed on one of the busiest lives most of us have ever heard about. Born on January 3, 1885 in Grenada, Mississippi, she was a nomad at a young age. No one could keep her still, no one could keep her quiet—but no one wanted to. |
Travel was in her blood, inherited from a father who, although not a drifter,
was on the road much of the time. He owned one of the first automobiles
that was manufactured...and put it into immediate use with daughters Neill
and Jane sitting right beside him.
As
soon as she graduated from institutions of classical learning (particularly
in journalism), Neill started to move on. Never known to be shy,
she met many celebrities of the day, of which Amelia Earhart was one of
the first. From Earhart she picked up a romance with flying.
Flying turned into a natural habit and she expanded her highway into the
sky. Ms. James had never been afraid of anything, so traveling
the world was "just another trip." She had made plans
to travel the entire Orient, but something about Japan stirred
a desire to remain longer.
She lived with and adored the primitive oriental Ainu people of northern
Hokkaido, Japan...often dining with the Master Chiefs of the many
and different Ainu tribes. She documented with both text and pictures
the years of her stay. Her diaries turned into books which delighted
the literary world, placing her in the Literary Who's Who as
an author of note: installed twice in the Hall of Fame in Literature with
the American Biographical Society, and Personalities of America.
In 1983 she was established in the International Who's Who of Intellectuals
from Cambridge, England in their Biographical Centre. In total she
has received 43 major citations acknowledging her contributions to the
world of fine arts.
Ms. James, upon returning from Japan just before December 7, 1941, decided
to travel all "39 corners of Mexico". It was on
the slopes of the Volcano Paricutín when it erupted that she met
her first disaster. Badly injured, she was taken from the mountain
in Michoacan to Ajijic, Jalisco, for a year of bed rest and recuperation.
This is when she really fell in love with Mexico and its people.
With extra time on her hands, she began compiling her notes and journals
into the extremely popular PETTICOAT VAGABOND series of which Dust
In My Heart, Petticoat Vagabond: In Ainu Land, Petticoat Vagabonds: Up
and Down The World in Asia and White Reindeer became extremely
popular. These five books introduced and invited flocks
of writers to arrive Lakeside to share in Neill's wealth of information.
As the desire to travel began to subside, Ernest Hemmingway, D.H. Lawrence,
George Bernard Shaw, plus the editor of Life Magazine followed
her for a visit in her established permanent address in Mexico. Ms.
James became a great benefactress to her beloved Mexican people. She
turned the small fishing village of Ajijic on the shores of Lake Chapala into
an art center of international focus.
This premiere art center was not only for oil paints on canvas, but
was also dedicated to cultural growth in many of the arts, which inaugurated
the popular Chapala Festivals, the first form of international musical
fine arts imported into the area.
Living in a poor community which supported Mulberry trees, one day she
remembered the silk worms she had seen in Japan, and went back
to get them so she could establish the first weaving factory of silken
products in Mexico. The Mulberry trees were the feeding grounds of
the worms, but unfortunately it was the coldest rainy season this area
had had in many years, and the worms perished. Immediately she converted
the looms to cotton. The weaving looms soon became big business for the
village.
Everywhere she traveled she picked up rare plants and brought them
"home". The garden at LCS is still filled with
some 200 varieties she personally planted.
Neill founded the first library of Chapala and then Ajijic, and she
taught cooking aids to make life a lot easier for the women of the
large households at Lakeside. Being concerned over sanitation and
health, she developed a water purifying system, dug the first deep water
wells, helped install both electricity and the telephone, discovered gold
in the mountain caves above Ajijic, all while setting up schools for the
children's education. Being a woman of means inherited from her
father, she financed many of her most talented children on through the
university level. In fact, six of her original students still live
and paint at Lakeside today: Antonio Cardenas, Dionicio Morales,
Victor Romero, Enrique Valesquez, Jesus Lopez Vega, and Javier Zaragoza.
Each of these men have their own gallery in Ajijic and are actively engaged using
the painting demands that Neill had placed on them as little children.
All six are the best of friends, another trait taught during their
instructive years at the knee of their beloved instructor.
After WWII many military retirees came to Mexico sponsored by the G. I.
Bill. Many of their friends traveled with them coming from every
walk of life. Literary personalities, film and stage personalities,
magazine editors and major writers came to the glorious year-round weather,
and decided not to return "home." This became "home"
and it is to this very day to so many of us.
Since the Lakeside area had grown so much since Neill's arrival in 1942,
on January 15, 1955 she was part of the "31 foreigners" who
decided an expatriate society was needed to assist in many areas.
Brig. General John Paul Ratay (a highly decorated military officer
from WWII) with Dr. Pennock became the first co-presidents of
the new organization— THE LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY.
Neill James was a generous philanthropist. One of her most important
donations was that of her last home, including contents, as well as the
huge grounds on which sits the THE LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY, the
largest expatriate community (in one area) in Mexico. A NEILL
JAMES' TRUST was set up to provide care for Neill for the rest of
her life. Today the Society is an information center for travelers,
residents, and the friendly Mexican people.
She was involved from the first with the annual Canada Day and U. S. Independence
Day picnic that takes place the first part of July. True to
her southern heritage, she enthusiastically helped start this yearly picnic
four years before her death. 2003 was the 13th annual celebration,
and was dedicated to NEILL JAMES— an extraordinary lady who
saw the need to help and did so. Illustration
above: Detail of a portrait of Neill James, donated to LCS by artist Myrne
Shreve. The portrait is located in the Sala of The Lake Chapala Society.