QUAKERS

 

This drawing of the breaking of Silence at a Quaker Meeting appeared on the

website of the Miami Meeting. I was curious about who had created the image

and wondered if it was drawn by the artist Bobby Buskirk who had formerly been

a member of Miami Meeting. Bobby's daughter, Sally Gillespie, who was my

friend in the Friends Meeting of Ocala for many years was able to confirm that

the picture was done by her mother.

Bobby and Phil Buskirk were married in Miami after Phil moved there in 1974.

It was a second marriage for both of them. Bobby's first husband Robert Slane

had died in 1972. Phil was divorced from Frances Hamer Kanzler to whom he

was married from 1942 until the early seventies. Phil and Bobby were distant

cousins and knew each other as children in Palisades, Michigan. Bobby was

born August 18, 1916 and named Rosamond Mack Clark. She and Robert Slane

parented four children, Mack, Robert, Sally and Susanna. Phil and Frances were

also the parents of four, Charles, Philip, James, and Martha.

Phil Buskirk had been a powerful spokesperson for peace, justice and reconciliation

as he worked for AFSC for many years. He held the position of Field Director for

AFSC in Israel from 1959 to 1961. Bobby became a Quaker and joined the Miami

Meeting after her marriage to Phil. She was always interested in art. She drew

pastel portraits of people and animals.  She designed wood block prints, and she

painted in oil and acrylic paints.

Her love of art was passed on to her daughter Sally who became an art teacher

in public schools.

Later Phil and Bobby moved south from Miami to the town of Florida City very

near Homestead and the Everglades National Park. In 1994 extreme south

Florida was in the path of Hurricane Andrew which became the costliest storm

to hit the US up to that time. The home of Bobby and Phil was destroyed along

with 25,000 other homes in Miami-Dade County. Instead of rebuilding in south

Florida Bobby and Phil moved to higher ground in central Florida. They settled

in the small town of McIntosh 18 miles south of Gainesville. Although they

became a part of the Gainesville Friends Meeting their time in central Florida

was short. Phil died in 1995 and Bobby's death followed the next year.

Sally said of her mother, "She loved Quaker Meeting.  She enjoyed getting to
know the people.  She loved making up poems about people and playing word games and family games.  She liked to laugh and she loved to read."

One daughter followed her mother into art, the other became a college librarian.