Victoria Lincoln

Victoria Lincoln – Obituary

By Liam Douglas Malkan

My Mom was born Ann Elinor Moskol on March 11, 1931 in Providence Rhode Island where she grew up as Eleanor Ann Moskol, better known as Elly Moskol. She married Gerald Malkan in her early 20’s becoming Elly Malkan and in January 1959 when she was 27 I was born. Divorced from Gerald in 1963 we lived in Los Angeles, California and eventually moved to Laurel Canyon when was I was 6 years old and my mom was 33. Laurel Canyon was a wonderful magical place to live in the 1960s and 70s. Located in the Hollywood Hills, between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. It was a place with interesting people such as famous musicians, people in the music industry, artists and hippies and regular working people. My mom was working full time as a social worker then after I set out for my walk to the school bus stop she would leave on her daily commute to downtown L.A. in in her trusty Volvo. My mom remarried on November 28, 1969 to Marvin Lincoln, changing her name to Elly Lincoln. Marv was a writer and magazine publisher in Los Angeles and the three of us moved to a 3-bedroom house in Laurel Canyon. She continued to work, this time as a therapist in private practice mostly doing Marriage and Family counseling. At a certain point Mom and Marv decided that we should move to France, so in 1972 we had a series of garage sales and sold all of our belongings and drove across the country with our dog, August. We drove to New York where we boarded the SS France bound for France. The SS France was a luxury cruise liner that ran from 1962 to 1974 before being sold to the Norwegian Cruise Line. The cruise to France lasted two weeks and mostly I remember the ship had a swimming pool and two movie theaters. From there we stayed in Nice, France for only about 3 months deciding instead to try Rome. We stayed there for a month with a nice Italian family in a Bed and Breakfast. Marv made a side trip to Germany where he bought a brand-new yellow VW camper van with a pop-top from the factory. We then used the van to travel around Europe for another couple of months going through Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden and some other countries. It was then my mom and Marv decided to divorce so in late 1972 the two of us returned to the US and moved back to Laurel Canyon. We lived there together until 1978 when my mom moved to India to become a sannyasin with her spiritual teacher and guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. A conversation between Bhagwan and my mom is recounted on pages 341-346 of his 1983 book “The Sacred Yes” where he gives her the name “Ma Veet Mano” explaining that Veet means “beyond” and Mano means “mind.” Bhagwan explained that “To be in the mind is to be outside the Garden of Eden.” It was from there that she eventually moved to Bhagwan’s newly formed commune in the United States called Rajneeshpuram, also known as “The Ranch” where hundreds of like minded Sannyasins built an entire town on what was formerly a large parcel of undeveloped ranch land in Oregon. She did not have a phone of her own at The Ranch so I only talked with her a few brief times during that period and received a few post cards with something brief written on them. The commune dissolved in 1989 and that was when my mother, then known as Mano, moved to Sequim, Washington where her boyfriend Mark was living. At that time she resumed using her last name of Lincoln but feeling free to choose a new first name she legally changed it to Victoria, saying how she always loved that name, thus becoming Victoria Lincoln. That was also the year she moved into her house in Sequim. A historic cottage house in the Carlsborg area of Sequim originally built in 1914 as housing for the lumber mill’s upper management that I purchased and told her she could live in if she wanted. She lived there for the next 35 years. During the early 1990s my mom worked in Port Angeles running the Peninsula Adult Literacy Service, a state funded agency that provided reading assistance to adults on the Olympic Peninsula. For her service there she received an award from the State of Washington as a Distinguished Citizen. After that job she retired. I would fly out to see her in Sequim many times over the years, usually bringing my tool box as things always needed to be fixed. Mostly we relaxed around the house and talked, or went for a drive into town, or to the Dungeness Bay, Crescent Beach, Port Angeles or Port Townsend. We would always go to our favorite restaurant down by the water called “The 3 Crabs” or sometimes take the ferry to Victoria, Canada to have tea at the Empress. We spoke on the phone frequently over the years about her life in Sequim, her life at The Ranch, my life in Colorado and of course the house. She came out to Colorado to visit many times going to see her friends and fellow sannyasins in Boulder or to visit me in Breckenridge or visit Pam and I in Denver. One time my mom and I took a road trip from Breckenridge to Santa Fe, New Mexico stopping to see all the small towns along the way. Another time we stayed in Colorado Springs where we had front row tickets to see a world class figure skating competition, which is something she loved to follow. My mom passed away on April 11, 2024. The cause of death was Peritoneal Carcinomatosis. I was with her at the end as she lay in hospice for the last 9 days of her life at the Life Care Center of Port Townsend where she received very loving care. My mom was 93 years and 1 month old. I miss her very much. May her memory always be a blessing.

A Remembrance

By Victoria’s sister Marjorie Moskol

Victoria Lincoln was born Eleanor Ann Moskol to Maurice and Eva Moskol on March 11, 1931 in Providence, Rhode Island at the Lying-In Hospital. When mother’s sister Belle asked Eva what the baby’s name would be, she was told Ann Eleanor. At which point Aunt Belle objected saying no, she should instead be named Eleanor Ann. This may be why Victoria was comfortable with changing her name to mark new chapters in her life. The family lived in a tenement on Rugby St. Eleanor’s sister Marjorie was born on April 17, 1932. They attended Broad St. Elementary School and played in Roger Williams Park. This was the depression and their father maintained his business as a wholesaler of clothing by working from their home. It was also a time, when as a Brown University educated engineer and a World War I Veteran, he was barred by antisemitism from practicing his profession. In January of 1941, just before World War II, Maurice purchased land on Memorial Road in Providence to build a single family home. Eva’s recommendations contributed to the home’s design. Eleanor and Marjorie attended Summit Avenue School, Nathan Bishop Junior High and then Hope High School. The family worshiped at Temple Beth El, where the children attended Sunday School. Eleanor was social, very popular, with many friends. She was also an all A student. Her father served as an Ensign in the Navy during World War I. As a ship’s engine room engineer he crossed the Atlantic Ocean several times and celebrated the Armistice of 1919 in France. At the onset of World War II, at the age of 45 years, he again volunteered for service. However, an official letter from the Navy thanked him but declined to accept his enlistment, much to the relief of his devoted wife Eva. Instead he served as air raid warden in his neighborhood in Providence when there were actually concerns about enemy air raids as German submarines were sighted off the coast. To widen her horizon, Eleanor chose Syracuse University over Pembroke College. This is where she met her husband to be Gerald Malkan. They were married in her junior year and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts when Gerald was accepted to Harvard Law School. Eleanor completed her bachelor degree at Boston University and was admitted the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She went on to obtain an MFA at Radcliffe College and worked for a time at the Boston Children’s Museum. The couple moved to New Jersey when Gerald was offered a position teaching law at Rutgers University. Shortly afterward their son, Liam Douglas Malkan was born in New York City. An invitation for Gerald to join the faculty of the UCLA Law School brought the family to Los Angeles. This was an exciting and socially conscious time to be living in Southern California, with the founding of Esalen Institute and the Gestalt Therapy movement. The person we now know as Victoria became interested in pursuing a Master’s Degree in Social Work at the University of Southern California. It was around this time that she and Gerald separated and divorced. While raising her son Liam at their home in Laurel Canyon, Eleanor pursued a career working for non-profit social service agencies and in private practice as a very successful psycho therapist. When Liam entered college, Victoria undertook a spiritual journey traveling to India to study Eastern religious traditions, in furtherance of her interest in the Human Potential Movement. She studied in an Ashram under the guidance of a spiritual leader, observing Hindu cultural traditions and practices. After her return to the United States, she accepted an opportunity to join a religious intentional community in Oregon. When hopes for a positive collective experience proved elusive, Victoria relocated with friends to the Olympic Peninsula, settling in Sequim. There she worked in social services, including for a literacy program, tutoring and grant writing until settling into retirement