Dec. 4, 2025

#17 - Denise Deneaux

Show Notes

It makes sense that one of Denise Deneaux's early literary heroes was a woman who traveled the world with utter fearlessness. Because later, as a Peace Corps volunteer assigned to Chile during Pinochet’s repressive rule, she dealt with guns, danger, threats, and harassment--once sitting in a police station with her new baby on her lap. Her takeaways: tolerance, resilience, and greater empathy for people everywhere who are repressed. For this episode, Denise reads a letter to her mother that she hadn’t seen in more than 40 years.

Denise enjoyed a varied career before retiring in 2024. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley in Cultural Anthropology, she taught Spanish and music in Waldorf elementary school for 23 years, and before and after that was an Executive Assistant. She has worked in that capacity at the Canadian Consulate General in San Francisco, for the President of the University of California Systemwide, for the Speaker of the California Legislature, the Head of the Escuela Bilingue Internacional in Oakland, CA, the President of Southern Oregon University, and the CEO of the Britt Music Festival over her long career. Simultaneously, she pursued singing and songwriting, and continues to perform locally, solo or with her partner, Shawn Skylark, or her daughter, Allison. As music and the pursuit of peace are two of her passions, she served on the board of the 100-member Rogue Valley Peace Choir. She currently serves on the board of the Ashland Community Food Bank and as a deacon at the First Presbyterian Church. Her son Erin (born in Chile) and daughter-in-law Caitlin have careers in filmmaking (Erin is currently filming the fourth season of "The Diplomat" and her daughter Allison is a songwriter and singing teacher.

You can hear some of her music streaming on Spotify HERE.