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French Teacher and Docent

Elaine DeMartin-Webster ’80

January 13, 2025, in Eugene, Oregon, from brain cancer.

Elaine was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1958. Her father, Dennis DeMartin, was in the Foreign Service, and her mother, Monique Gourjon, was born in Paris and emigrated to the United States after marrying Dennis.

Most of Elaine’s childhood was spent overseas at the U.S. embassies that her parents were posted to. After Dennis died of a heart attack in South Africa, Monique joined the Foreign Service and moved her family to Morocco (and, eventually, Tunisia). Elaine was greatly influenced by her time living in North Africa and revisited many experiences in her memoirs and poetry.

After graduating from high school at Aiglon College in Chesières, Switzerland, Elaine moved back to the U.S. to attend ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ÕŽòè¤. She wrote her thesis, “U.S. Policy Toward South Africa Under Nixon, Ford, and Carter,” under Professor Edward Barton Segel [history 1973–2011]. Later, she received her MFA in poetry at the University of Southern Maine’s Stone Coast Writers program.

In 1988, Elaine married Steve Webster. After living in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart, Germany, they moved to Paris, where Elaine attended the Sorbonne and graduated with a magister degree. They returned to the DC area in 1994 and later relocated to Seattle.

Elaine followed Steve to Asia for two years while he worked on projects in Taiwan, Indonesia, and Mainland China. In 2009, the couple moved to Eugene, where Elaine attended and taught French at OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute).

Elaine was active in the French community in Eugene and was also a docent at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus. She is survived by her husband, Steve.

Appeared in ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ÕŽòè¤ magazine: Spring 2026