Elizabeth Seward Fleeson, known as Libby, died peacefully of natural causes at her Provincetown home on Feb. 11, 2022, nine days before her 66th birthday. The cause of death was confirmed by her family.
The daughter of the late Dr. William Fleeson and Beatrice (Riedel) Fleeson, Libby was born on Feb. 20, 1956 in Minneapolis. As a toddler, she insisted on always wearing her crinoline petticoat, even over a snowsuit or pajamas. That early display of fashion sense characterized her childhood years in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood of Hopkins, Minn.
When she was eight, the family moved to West Hartford, Conn., where Libby, a striking blond with an intuitive sense of glamor and style, blossomed. She was a member of the swimming and diving team at Conard High School; she graduated in 1974.
While a business student at Boston University later that year, she met Christine Dillinger, who became her best friend for more than 40 years. In Boston, Libby began a career as a fashion model with the Maggie, Inc. agency.
In 1975 she flew on a one-way ticket to Milan and checked into a small hotel frequented by models. On her third day there, she met Massimo (Max) Pagliughi, the love of her life. They were together nearly every day thereafter until Max’s death on Feb. 1, 2019.
Max was in the clothing business in Milan. After a year or two of modeling in Europe, Libby went to work for an American company in Milan that expedited fashion exports. At times she worked as a consultant at fashion shows in Milan and Paris. Eventually, Libby opened her own office in Milan, buying tablewares for the Henri Bendel department store in New York.
Every August, when much of Italy closed for a long vacation, Libby and Max flew to Connecticut to see her family. The two always sped off to the Cape for at least a week and fell in love with its beauty and quirky populace. For years, they dreamed of an early retirement here.
In 2000, Libby and Max made that dream come true; they left Italy and bought a condo in Provincetown with an open floor plan reminiscent of their Milan apartment. They put away their chic Italian city clothes and joined the casual Provincetown scene with jeans, sweats, and Libby’s favorite khaki army jacket.
Libby fashioned herself into a Provincetown artist, making collages with mixed media. She combed the beaches and crushed clamshell parking lots for flotsam and jetsam and vintage ceramic bits with which to assemble distinctive mosaics. She entered pieces at the Provincetown Art Association, including a 2010 collage entitled Monumental Centennial, which featured an antique map of the Cape surrounded by snapping lobster claws. She sculpted a life-size portrait of her cat, Chessie, cast in bronze.
Libby gave classes in ceramic mosaics at her Provincetown Commons studio, and she taught Italian cooking to rapt audiences in her kitchen. A savvy gourmet, she cooked both American and Italian dishes, always served on her collection of blue and white china.
In her last few years, Libby suffered from limited mobility, but she was optimistic about recovery; she told friends she was looking forward to summer 2022 so she could enjoy swimming, a lifelong pleasure.
Christine, who now lives in Mashpee, described Libby as “a true diva in every sense of the word. Her chipper ‘Hi Dill!’ over the phone always made me smile and we’d go on to reminisce about our days in Boston, Milan, West Hartford, and whatever was on her mind that day.” Once, when Libby had ordered a two-pound lobster all for herself from Fanizzi’s, she told Christine, “I should have ordered another!”
Libby’s last view on Earth was looking out over Provincetown Bay. She had installed red and green ship’s lights signaling port and starboard on either side of her balcony glass doors.
She is survived by her brothers, William P. Fleeson of Duluth, Minn., Breck Fleeson of Minneapolis, and Peter Fleeson of Hartford, Conn.; a sister, Lucinda Fleeson of Washington, D.C.; a niece, Jocinda Fleeson Gaynor of Minneapolis; and two nephews, William Fleeson of Lewisville, N.C. and Nikolai Fleeson of Cameron, Mont.
Memorial donations may be made to the Carrie A. Seaman Animal Shelter, where Libby was a volunteer, at P.O. Box 1374, Provincetown 02657.
To share a memory or leave an online condolence, visit gatelyfuneralservice.com.
Editor’s note: Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of this obituary, published in print on March 10, gave the wrong date for the wedding photo. It was 1985, not 1995.
