Nona Deakin in the late 1930s.
Also known as: Nona Howell
Born: 1916, Iowa, United States
Died: November 2, 1944, Plainfield, New Jersey, United States
Nationality: American
Family: Howell, Deakin
Glassworking relatives:
- John L. Deakin (husband)
- John R. Deakin (son)
- Ethel Maude Howell (mother)
- Grace M. Howell (sister)
- Leigh B. Howell (brother)
- Marie S. Howell (sister-in-law)
- Robert M. Howell, Sr. (father)
- Robert M. Howell, Jr. (brother)
Active: [1929-1944]
Associated acts:
Brief biography
Nona Deakin was born Nona Howell to Robert Howell and Ethel Maude Howell (née Pauley) in Iowa in 1916. Her parents were itinerant glassworkers, and the family traveled across the United States demonstrating lampworking to the public. She was one of four siblings, all of whom learned to lampwork at an early age (Nona learned at 13). They never attended school, but were instructed by a tutor on the road.
She married John L. Deakin in 1938 in New Jersey. The couple had one child together, John Robert Deakin, in 1939. They built a workshop at their home to make glass and demonstrated to local clubs.
Deakin died on November 2, 1944, in Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey, after a long illness. She is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Unionville, New Jersey.
