Joanna Cohen, known to all as Jodi, was my college roommate freshman year at Skidmore College, at that time a "girls school" in Saratoga Springs, NY. We became close friends and remained so throughout our four years there. She was smart, funny, rebellious and, as I learned, seriously damaged emotionally. According to what she told me, her stepfather had been having sex with her from the time she was 12 years old. He threatened that if she told her mother, her mother would commit suicide and Jodi would therefore be responsible for her mother's death.
After graduation, we lost touch. I saw her only once, in the company of a frightening drug dealer with a gun in his belt, and I never wanted to repeat that experience, so I never saw her again.
From what little I've learned, her life spiraled out of control, despite her success as an artist. I don't know what she died of, but she was only 61 and apparently not in touch with any family members at the time of her death. It's so tragic that a talented woman from a wealthy family died so completely alone that she ended in a grave on Hart Island!