Posted by admin on September 24th, 2006 at 8:52 pm (Tributes)
As requested by many, these are my remarks from Evelyn’s remembrance on 9/23 — Jim Marshall
It’s hard to imagine a world without Evelyn. For my wife Norma and me, she and Everett have been an indispensable part of our lives for forty years. We first met them while waiting at Kennedy Airport for a long-delayed charter flight to Europe. We were attracted by Evelyn’s beautiful smile across the waiting room and introduced ourselves. Later, innocent Manhattanites that we were, we were lured to Brooklyn to the Ortner’s impossibly elegant Brownstone where we met interesting and elegant people. Soon, we were the surprised owners of an ancient house with 15 amps of electricity and lead pipes hanging like vines — victims of the Ortner’s Save Park Slope seduction campaign.
Of course, it was the best thing that ever happened to us.
Evelyn and Everett have always been a wonder to behold — saving Park Slope one day, reviving BAM the next, protecting Victoriana, supporting the Museum and, most recently, founding and running their transatlantic exchange organization, Preservation Volunteers.
But Evelyn always found time to be a true friend as well — designing our kitchen as a welcome gift, for example. And spending an afternoon on her knees pulling up linoleum soaked in cat pee from our ground floor.
She and Everett were always generous hosts — we’ll not soon forget all those Friday night dinners in their elegant dining room, fueled by gallon jugs of Moscarella wine, full of laughter, floating amaretti wrappers and spirited — sometimes too spirited — conversation. Evelyn and Everett loved to have young people around — in their house, mixed-in with our geezer crowd, there were always interesting newcomers on their way up in exciting careers.
Evelyn loved children too. She was like an extra and much-loved mother to our own son Andrew. A great day for him was when he finally reached Evelyn’s height in their annual measurement contest. Evelyn went on to become an extra and much-loved grandmother to Andrew’s three children — our grandchildren. Each year she took her young neighborhood entourage to the Montauk club Christmas party. She always produced just the right present, the longed-for book, the perfect magazine subscription. And she never forgot a Birthday!
But when I think of Evelyn, it is most often as a member of a wonderful two-person team, a team that was far greater than the sum of its parts. The accomplishments of the Ortner team are legion, as witnessed by the many honors they’ve received. Their beloved New York City owes them both a great debt.
I’m reminded of this partnership each time I see Evelyn’s favorite work of art in the Brooklyn Museum — the 18th Dynasty Egyptian carving of the loving couple, Nebsen and Nebet-ta, seated with their arms around each other, with their many accomplishments inscribed on their big chair. Now, Nebsen was a high-ranking scribe, just like Everett, and his wife Nebet-ta is described as a Songstress of the great goddess Isis. I’m sure Evelyn is playing some such role wherever she is now — presiding over the highest rites amongst the highest gods — and probably leading the occasional tour of their art collection too.
We loved her and will miss her terribly.
