This obituary was originally published at funerals.coop. I’ve put it here for posterity.
Deborah Sampson Green (1934–2025) of Seattle, Washington, was a writer, editor, poet, painter, filmmaker, photographer, and teacher.
Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent her childhood in multiple western states while her father, Dr. John Jacob Sampson, served as an Army physician. She attended Lowell High School in San Francisco and Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
After college, she taught at Shady Hill School in Cambridge and Anna Head School in Berkeley. In the mid-1960s, she worked as a manuscript editor at Ramparts magazine. She later assisted with the medical journal Epilepsia at the University of Washington. She earned a Master of Arts in Teaching in 1993 and taught English at North Seattle College for 15 years. She edited Aaron Dixon’s book My People are Rising.
She married Dr. John Robert Green in 1968 and had one son, Caleb John (Banta-) Green, in 1971. Following her husband’s death in 1974, she raised their son while pursuing her creative work. She co-wrote Songs and Words (1974) and self-published One Boy (2006) and Curving to Light (2010).
She is survived by her son Caleb John Banta-Green; daughter-in-law Katherine Bruce Banta-Green; grandsons Robert Bruce and Peter Caleb; stepdaughters Shelley Beversdorf and Lynn Pavlinovic with their children; siblings Janet Reider and John F. Sampson; and longtime family friend Jesse (Carl) Schaefer.
She was preceded in death by her husband Dr. John Robert Green; her parents Dr. John Jacob Sampson and Rose Etta (Kahn) Sampson; and granddaughter Lucy Galloway Banta-Green.