Rebecca Matlock

Rebecca Burrum Matlock (1928–2019) was an American photographer and the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Jack F. Matlock, Jr.[2]

Rebecca Matlock
Born	Rebecca Inez Burrum December 7, 1928 Manchester, Tennessee
Died	November 9, 2019 (aged 90) Durham, North Carolina
Alma mater	Duke University
Occupation	Photographer
Spouse(s)	Jack F. Matlock, Jr. ​ ​ (m. 1949)​
Children	5[1]

Biography

Born Rebecca Inez Burrum in Manchester, Tennessee to Hugh H. Burrum and Leona M. Graham, she lived in Waverly and Gallatin, Tennessee. As an undergraduate at Duke University she met and married Jack F. Matlock, Jr.

After graduation, they moved to New York City where both took graduate studies at Columbia University. In 1953 they moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, where the first three of their children (James, Hugh, and Nell) were born. In 1956 the Matlocks joined the Foreign Service and were posted in following years to Vienna, Oberammergau, Moscow, Accra, Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam. Two more children were born during their first tour in Moscow (David and Joseph).[3]

The Matlocks served four tours in the Soviet Union, between 1961 and 1991, and during that time she travelled to 14 of the 15 Union Republics.[4] They were posted to Moscow in 1961, 1974, 1981, and finally in 1987 when Jack Matlock was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. During their final tour they lived at Spaso House in Moscow until 1991 and their retirement from the Foreign Service.

After leaving the Foreign Service they lived for five years in North Stonington, Connecticut, and New York City; and then moved to Princeton, New Jersey. In 2009 she was named Honorary Trustee of the Friends of Davis International Center of Princeton University.[5] The Matlocks now divide their time between a home in Princeton and her family farm in Booneville, Tennessee.

On November 9, 2019, Ambassador Matlock posted publicly on his Facebook: "My beloved wife of 70 years, Rebecca Burrum Matlock, passed away this morning in Duke University Hospital." The cause of death has not yet been made public.[6]

Sarah Caldwell biography

Matlock served on the board of the Opera Company of Boston and interviewed director Sarah Caldwell over the course of several years to produce her biography, Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera.[7]

Photography exhibits

Matlock has had more than 50 exhibits of her photographs, as well as a series of exhibits by photographer Donald Schomacker.[3]

Some Exhibits of Rebecca Matlock's Photographs

Date	City	Venue	Exhibit	Reference
1983	Washington, DC	American Foreign Service Club Library	Black and White in Color	[4]
1984	New York	Columbia University	On Architecture	[3]
1984	New York	Republican Women’s Club	On Architecture	[3]
1985	Seattle, WA	University of Washington	Art in Czechoslovakia, including exhibition by Donald Schomacker	[3]
1988	Moscow	Cinematographers Union	International Film Festival	[3]
1989	Moscow	Photojournalists Union		[3]
January 1990	Moscow	Writer’s Union	People	[3]
1990	Vladivostok			[3]
1990	Tbilisi, Georgia			[3]
1990	Ulan Ude			[3]
March 8, 1999	Princeton, NJ	Stevenson Hall, Princeton University	Rebecca Matlock Exhibit	[4]
September, 1999	Princeton, NJ	Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University	Excursion to Georgia	[4]
June 6, 2004	Tbilisi, Georgia	Tbilisi Movie Actors' Theatre	Special Places of Rebecca	[8]
March 18, 2005	Greensboro, NC	Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship	The Time of Mikhail Gorbachev	[9]
November 7–18, 2005	Princeton, NJ	Chancellor Green café, Princeton University	The Time of Mikhail Gorbachev	[10][11]
September 1, 2006	New York, NY	Harriman Institute, International Affairs Building	Gorbachevs, Reagans and Bushes	[12]
November 7, 2007	Princeton, NJ	Rockefeller College Gallery, Princeton University	Repairs of the Inca Bridge over Peru's Apurimac River	[13]
November, 2008	Princeton, NJ	International Center, Princeton University	Black and White in Color	[14]

Published works

1. At Spaso House: People and meetings: Notes of the wife of an American ambassador (in Russian) Transl. from English by T. Kudriavtseva, Moscow: EKSMO, Algorithm, 2004 ISBN 5-699-05497-9
2. Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera by Caldwell, Sarah with Matlock, Rebecca, Middletown, Conn. : Wesleyan University Press, 2008 ISBN 0-8195-6885-6

Notes

1. "Matlock Biography, World Leaders Forum". Columbia University. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
2. "Rebecca Inez Burrum Matlock". Moore - Cortner Funeral Homes. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
3. Squire, Patricia Interview with Rebecca Burrum Matlock Frontline Diplomacy, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (January 11, 1990)
4. Rebecca Matlock Exhibit The Princeton Packet (March 19, 1999)
5. Friends of Davis International Center of Princeton University, Fall 2009 Newsletter
6. https://www.facebook.com/jack.matlock.75/posts/2718681378182339
7. Blassnigg, Katharina, Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera (review) Leonardo Reviews (December 1, 2008)
10. Bartus, Tom (3 November 2005). "Photo exhibition focuses on Gorbachev era, Nov. 7-18". The Trustees of Princeton University. Retrieved 3 March 2015.