Judith “Jinx” Adams Morgan
Author, TV Writer, Painter
SPOTLIGHT ON THE HONORARY BOARD – JUDITH “JINX” ADAMS MORGAN
By Lloyd Crenna
I have known Judith “Jinx” Adams Morgan since 1954. We met at Concord’s Mt. Diablo High School, graduating in 1957. Jinx was a high school trendsetter and always an excellent student; I knew she was destined for great accomplishments. After graduation from high school, she went on to receive her degree in English from Stanford University. In 1964 she and her college roommate, Judy Perry, published a bestselling cookbook, “Saucepans and the Single Girl,” which was serialized for nine months in The Ladies Home Journal and was reissued by Warner Books in 2006. Doubleday later published a second book by the duo.
A move to Los Angeles gave Jinx the opportunity to write for such television shows as “The Smothers Brothers” and “That Girl.” She also wrote a pilot for a show titled “Three for Tahiti.”
For the past twenty eight years Jinx and her husband Jeff Morgan (another Mt. Diablo graduate) have lived on the Caribbean island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, where they own and operate The Sugar Mill Hotel, a popular beachside resort built around the ruins of a 380 year old sugar plantation and rum distillery. The dining room in the old stone sugar cane boiling house was named by Conde Nast Concierge as “One of the 12 most romantic dining rooms in the world,” and readers of Caribbean Travel and Life have voted the Sugar Mill one of the best restaurants in the Caribbean. I can attest to this having visited Jinx and Jeff there several years ago.
The Morgans are the authors of several books, including The Sugar Mill Caribbean Cookbook published by The Harvard Common Press and Two Cooks in One Kitchen, published by Doubleday. They originated the column “Reservations for Two” which appeared monthly in Bon Appetit magazine for over twenty years. In addition, they have written articles on food, wine, travel, and a variety of other subjects for major publications including American Airlines’ in-flight magazine American Way, for which Jinx was contributing editor on food and wine for several years.
An interest in watercolor painting led to her third career. Jinx Morgan’s paintings hang on the walls of the Sugar Mill Hotel and are shown in several galleries in the British Virgin Islands and the US Virgin Islands. In 2006 fifteen of her paintings were included in a show in London. Four of her paintings were selected to hang on the walls of the Legislative Council of the British Virgin Islands and one of her works is in Government House. Her paintings are included in private collections in the United Stated, Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Italy, and Austria as well as in the Caribbean.
Jinx and Jeff still have family residing in Contra Costa County and visit here frequently. Jinx has already been very helpful in artistic planning for the Society’s Galindo House activities. I am very happy and grateful to have Jinx on the Society’s Honorary Board and look forward to the Society being the beneficiary of her energy and artistic spirit.
