Yolanda's memorial service -- a celebration of a life well-lived -- will take place Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 2pm at the church she attended for decades: Ladera Community Church, 3300 Alpine Road, Portola Valley, CA 94028.
Anyone who wants to attend is very welcome.
Yolanda's obituary on her local newspaper.
Anyone who wants to attend is very welcome.
Yolanda's obituary on her local newspaper.
Remembering Yolanda
We are writing with very sad news. Our founder, Yolanda Astarita Patterson, passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her family on Thursday, May 26.
Yolanda created the International Simone de Beauvoir Society in 1981 and served as our President from 1983 to 2016. She was a founding editor of Simone de Beauvoir Studies and Editor in Chief for more than thirty years (1985-2016). She was the author of Simone de Beauvoir and the Demystifcation of Motherhood (University of Rochester Press, 1989) and numerous important articles that opened new directions in Beauvoir studies, including “Who Was this H.M. Parshley? The Saga of Translating The Second Sex” (1992), “Poupette and ‘Mone: The Beauvoir Sisters from Cradle to Grave” (1994), “Celebrating the Cinquantenaire of Le Deuxième Sexe in Paris in January 1999: A Pattersonian Perspective” (1999), “Simone de Beauvoir and Her Public” (1996), “Zaza and Simone: A Friendship that Ended All Too Soon” (2012), and many others. For thirty years, Yolanda also edited the Simone de Beauvoir Newsletter, which is digitally archived on our website along with some vintage recordings of interviews she conducted with Simone de Beauvoir herself.
Yolanda’s legacy to Beauvoir studies, the International Simone de Beauvoir Society, Simone de Beauvoir Studies is immense. Her tireless work and enthusiasm laid the foundation for the international community of Beauvoir scholars we enjoy today and was a crucial inspiration for the current global renaissance in Beauvoir studies.
For those who would like to extend personal condolences to Yolanda’s family, the address is:
Don and Kendal Patterson
2768 Dundee Court
Carlsbad, CA 92010
There will be a memorial service in California in August (we’ll pass on more details when these become available).
Yolanda created the International Simone de Beauvoir Society in 1981 and served as our President from 1983 to 2016. She was a founding editor of Simone de Beauvoir Studies and Editor in Chief for more than thirty years (1985-2016). She was the author of Simone de Beauvoir and the Demystifcation of Motherhood (University of Rochester Press, 1989) and numerous important articles that opened new directions in Beauvoir studies, including “Who Was this H.M. Parshley? The Saga of Translating The Second Sex” (1992), “Poupette and ‘Mone: The Beauvoir Sisters from Cradle to Grave” (1994), “Celebrating the Cinquantenaire of Le Deuxième Sexe in Paris in January 1999: A Pattersonian Perspective” (1999), “Simone de Beauvoir and Her Public” (1996), “Zaza and Simone: A Friendship that Ended All Too Soon” (2012), and many others. For thirty years, Yolanda also edited the Simone de Beauvoir Newsletter, which is digitally archived on our website along with some vintage recordings of interviews she conducted with Simone de Beauvoir herself.
Yolanda’s legacy to Beauvoir studies, the International Simone de Beauvoir Society, Simone de Beauvoir Studies is immense. Her tireless work and enthusiasm laid the foundation for the international community of Beauvoir scholars we enjoy today and was a crucial inspiration for the current global renaissance in Beauvoir studies.
For those who would like to extend personal condolences to Yolanda’s family, the address is:
Don and Kendal Patterson
2768 Dundee Court
Carlsbad, CA 92010
There will be a memorial service in California in August (we’ll pass on more details when these become available).
At the annual Society conference last week, many members shared memories of Yolanda. All who knew her were touched by her bright and generous personality. Peg Simons announced that the next volume of the Beauvoir Series (from University of Illinois Press) will be dedicated to Yolanda; the first winners of the annual “Patterson Prize / Prix Patterson,” established last year in honor of Yolanda for the essay that best embodies a Beauvoirian spirit, will be published in the next issue of Simone de Beauvoir Studies.
Those who would like to share memories and tributes should post their text(s) on the Facebook page of the Society by clicking on “create a post”: https://www.facebook.com/SdBSociety1 If you have a problem, please write to us via the Facebook page or to [email protected]
We will continue to find ways to honor and remember Yolanda in the months and years to come. Everything we do today, everything we hope to do in future, she made possible. We will try to be worthy of her legacy.
Those who would like to share memories and tributes should post their text(s) on the Facebook page of the Society by clicking on “create a post”: https://www.facebook.com/SdBSociety1 If you have a problem, please write to us via the Facebook page or to [email protected]
We will continue to find ways to honor and remember Yolanda in the months and years to come. Everything we do today, everything we hope to do in future, she made possible. We will try to be worthy of her legacy.
Copyright 2025. The International Simone de Beauvoir Society.