BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE — Adirondack author and magazine editor Elizabeth “Betsy” Folwell, has died at age 71.
Folwell was the former editor of Adirondack Life Magazine, author of several books, an essayist, former executive director of the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts in Blue Mountain Lake, and at one time a restaurant and general store owner.
LIFE AND CAREER
A native of Wisconsin, she and her husband, Tom Warrington, moved to Blue Mountain Lake in 1976.
Family friends said she died of cancer on Jan. 5. She was born Jan. 20, 1953. No services have been scheduled, according to Miller Funeral Home of Indian Lake.
Folwell was legally blind since the early 2000s due to a virus that attacked her optic nerve. She continued to write and edit using voice and text recognition software.
She started her career as education coordinator at the Adirondack Museum, now called Adirondack Experience, and left to become executive director of the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts from 1980 to 1988.
In 1989, she joined Adirondack Life Magazine as assistant editor and later editor, finishing her career when she retired in 2021 as creative director.
OTHER PURSUITS
When the Blue Mountain Lake general store went under, she and Warrington took it over for a few years, and when the Blue Mountain Lake Diner closed, she and her husband bought a 1946 Silk City Diner Company prefab restaurant located in Maryland and brought it to Blue Mountain Lake in 2017, where it opened in 2021 as Chef Darrell’s Mountain Diner.
Folwell served on the board of the International Regional Magazine Association when she was at Adirondack Life. Former Arizona Highways Magazine publisher Win Holden said she and Warrington were “among my most treasured friends in the publishing business” when he was on the board with her.
“Her views on any topic of importance were measured, expressed with clarity and conviction and always heeded,” he said.
AUTHOR, ESSAYIST
Folwell’s books included three editions of “The Adirondack Book,” a guide to all things Adirondack, “Short Carries,” a book of her personal essay from Adirondack Life, and “Adirondack Odysseys,” about museums and historic places.
Columnist and nature writer Bob Confer praised Folwell as a “renowned essayist and conservationist.”
“(She is) leaving behind a legacy of vivid nature writing that deepened community connections and understanding of the Adirondacks.”