ONCE UPON A TIME...
there was a storyteller named Kathleen Zundell who traveled far and wide telling stories of fearless kids, feisty women, family foibles, and four-footed creatures. Her repertoire celebrated many cultures, stories with American Sign Language, and tales of the earth.

In Memoriam
by Ross Altman

Beloved Los Angeles Storyteller Kathleen Zundell passed away Monday morning, May 11, 2009.  Kathleen was Storyteller-in-Residence at UCLA-Seeds University Elementary School for many years, as well as at Wildwood School and Children's Community School in the Valley.  She continued teaching and performing even as she battled non-Hodgkins lymphoma with both conventional and alternative methods of healing. 

Kathleen helped revive the ancient art of storytelling in Los Angeles when she co-founded (with Peggy Prentice) Community Storytellers in 1981, which continues to meet the second Thursday of every month at the Culver-Palms Methodist Church.  Kathleen told “stories of fearless kids, feisty women, family foibles and four-footed creatures.” 

Her unique style of storytelling blended elements of myth, ritual, personal stories and burlesque, all filtered through a post-sixties sensibility and warmth of humanity that embraced both human and animal worlds with equal devotion.

She brought that same devotional character to her personal life, wherein she became the hub of a storytelling community that occasionally met at her home both in Topanga Canyon and later on in Mar Vista.  She made each informal gathering memorable for its good food served pot-luck style, followed by a time for both storytellers and singers to share their latest confabulations, and ending with some form of ritual celebration that she would often spend hours preparing.  While living in Topanga, she became famous for her early afternoon nature hikes and late night Moon Walks, which were highlighted by her intimate knowledge of local flowers, trees and constellations.

Those fortunate friends who were on her extensive invitation list got to bring in the New Year on New Year’s Day rather than Eve, a holiday which had special meaning for Kathleen, since it was also her birthday.

For Kathleen storytelling was the quintessential human art form, a way of combining music, storytelling, poetry, acting and even dance into a unified whole, reaching as far back as the Bible and ancient Greece for some tales, with a broad knowledge of Native American creation myths, and her own life, which like all life she regarded as sacred and worth fighting for.

And fight she did, enduring prolonged pain and ongoing discomfort from both chemotherapy and radiation, as well as meditation, exercise, diet and spiritual disciplines that kept her outlook positive and forward-looking in the most physically demanding routines.  In addition she endured the psychological torture of being in occasional periods of remission followed by a return of the disease that made death her constant companion.

Fortunately she had other companions, including her life partner, peace activist John Owen, her extraordinary dog Cash, along with the domestic angels—her cats.

At the most recent gathering for her New Year’s Day/Birthday party Kathleen read a new story entitled Blackberries, which was just published.  Blackberries recounts her mother’s love of gardening, wilderness and a simple Thoreau-like dedication to the natural world, all tinged with sadness at her mother’s recent death.  Her story became as well a kind of eulogy for all things wise and wonderful, which sum up Kathleen Zundell as well as any two words can.

Kathleen was co-founder of Community Storytellers and a member of the National Storytelling Network.  Presented with a Service and Leadership Award from National Storytelling Network in 2002 and honored by the Los Angeles Storytelling Festival in 2004 with the Spirit of Storytelling Award, Ms. Zundell remains active in sponsoring creative events involving the oral tradition.

Recording Award
Kathleen is the winner of the 2000 NAPPA GOLD AWARD for THE MAGIC BOX
Audiocassette tape for children 2-7 years.

A reviewer writes: "Kathleen Zundell is a special kind of children's storyeller. Musical enhancement and sound effects bring back the best of old time radio."
L.A. Parent Magazine

PHOTO GALLERY