Laura Rita Sullivan

Laura Sullivan -- known to her friends and public as Isis -- was an adventurous spirit, drawn to the visual arts and esoteric exploration. Raised in Scarsdale, NY,  she eventually relocated to Arlington, VA. Her first marriage, to Jay Gordon Sennett of Atlantic City, NJ, ended in divorce.

She became involved in local politics and eventually found her calling in the cause of resistance to right-wing extremism, training as a photographer, and becoming a freelance journalist who visually exposed the rise of the far right. Her work led to two decades of involvement with One People’s Project, a foundation opposing white-supremacist groups, and to her marriage to fellow activist Michael Sullivan of Arlington in 2015. They were devoted to one another, and united in their passion for art and social justice, until Michael’s death from leukemia in August of 2024.

Laura was raised in strict Judaism, but drawn as an adult to the Wiccan reverence for the cycles of nature and its guiding dictum, “An it harm none, do what you will.” She was a champion of individual freedom and the right to self-expression. Not surprisingly, she loved cats for their independence and whimsicality, and cared for many throughout her life, including work with ferals. She was known as charming, flamboyant, and voluble, even during her final hospitalization, and her last, unfinished work of art was a painted poster reading YOU CAN’T SHUT US UP.

She is survived by a brother, Alan Strasser, and her children John Gordon Sennett of New York City and Shoshana Gilg of Silver Spring, MD.