Group Portrait with Lady Justine Jones Fixel

by Edward Mycue

she was from bingham canyon and salt lake city in utah & she loved the name (of a younger cousin) jersey justine, justine being the name given to girls all down the generations. her

mom’s & dad’s folks were breakaway mormons, and some were never mormons. a justine said to be the youngest of joseph smith’s six wives taken in by brigham young to the promised land of utah after smith was murdered in illinois.

justine came to san francisco at 21 with a b.a. from the catholic women’s college in salt lake city.

her dad had a bar in bingham canyon (that city no longer exists because of the copper mines tunnelled underneath)—his brother sam was sheriff of that big salt lake county; & later in salt lake city; there would be poker games in their salt lake city house late into the night. her brother, kendall jones, ten years older had come earlier to the university in berkeley.

justine (who became, as described by dr. alan leveton at her memorial, 14 october 2007, “the consummate professional clinician”) went into social work, but i don’t recall it was her first san francisco job. when the war began, she became a WAVE and lived with 3 others—jean broadbent, winifred lair, cecelia hurwich (“92 stairs,” says cecel, to get to their apt. penthouse at 1230-B washington st., bet. jones & taylor, in “the casbah” on telegraph hill). farwell taylor (for

whom charlie mingus wrote “farewell, farewell”) owned the casbah and did paintings of justine & cecel, lifetime best pals. her palship w/ bari rolfe, mime (and for many years, from her Paris residency, thlover of Marcel Marceau) and mime teacher. & warren anderson, composition student of darius milhaud, played a beautiful piano & became justine’s brother kendall’s lifelong partner. in l.a., kendall was treatment writer for metro-goldwyn-mayer & then universal, while warren became music librarian for the l.a. library: & always returned to stay with justine.

then, after the war, following an interval of modeling & partying says Cecel & before getting her master’s from the social welfare school, uc-berkeley, justine was a social worker, & worked for canon kip program, still going, of the episcopal church (canon kip was a hero of ’06 earthquake). i recall her stories of spending nights with kids rescued, & before they were able to be placed, in the loft of the old bldg. on 19th avenue and ortega that later became the music conservatory (before its recent move to oak/van ness/market). therapist wings. academic articles.

met larry in 50s. they’d been married before (she to keith). (larry, a daughter, kate frankel, in l.a.—granddaughter adrian & grandson joshua). stayed married. larry died in 2003.

justine got a fulbright to italy to consult on changing their social work system at univ. level, etc., had extensions twice—rare, 3 years in rome,’60-’63. while larry wrote. came back a year &

headed for mexico for another year (looking for george price, larry’s best bud), to see if they could find a way to support/live there. later learned they’d crossed w/ george returning to sf where

george, a writing professor at sf state, had returned via l.a., where he met zdena berger (price). zdena wrote Tell Me Another Morning, pub. 1961; 2007 repubd. by paris press as a refound woman hero writer— abt. surviving camps—

justine when i first knew her in 1970 was teaching at uc-berkeley in the school of social work and practicing as a founding member of the family therapy center in sf (then a pioneering approach). she had a long productive life. larry used to complain that justine was a great
source of misinformation, which

mostly amused her because maybe only larry could be teased that way and i heard it as “mixed information.” in her practice, justine’s “sand tray” therapy, its development and her

teaching, its use, led back to her work as a painter of oil on canvas to her incorporations, assemblings, environments with miniature figures, furniture, the natural world & symbols,

including her last great achievement “the white house,” her venetian paintings, a series of friezelike sculptures suffused with jungian themes, & household objects combined into a mixed

conglomeration arranged into painted autobiography and family history (much of this documented on film by al leveton, who also made a film on larry fixel and his poetry, philosophy, parables, memories of justine, of larry, names that drift up, constellate

& swim, a history, pantheon, honorable people.