Education
Duke University; Columbia University.
Duke University; Columbia University.
Born Rebecca Inez Burrum in Manchester, Tennessee to Hugh H. Burrum and Leona M. Graham, she lived in Waverly and Gallatin, Tennessee. After graduation, they moved to New York City where both took graduate studies at Columbia University. In 1956 the Matlocks joined the Foreign Service and were posted in following years to Vienna, Oberammergau, Moscow, Accra, Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam.
Two more children were born during their first tour in Moscow (David and Joseph).
The Matlocks served four tours in the Soviet Union, between 1961 and 1991, and during that time she travelled to 14 of the 15 Union Republics. They were posted to Moscow in 1961, 1974, 1981, and finally in 1987 when Jack Matlock was appointed United States. Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
During their final tour they lived at Spaso House in Moscow until 1991 and their retirement from the Foreign Service. After leaving the Foreign Service they lived for five years in North Stonington, Connecticut, and New York City.
And then moved to Princeton, New Jersey.
The Matlocks now divide their time between a home in Princeton and her family farm in Booneville, Tennessee. Matlock served on the board of the Opera Company of Boston and interviewed director Sarah Caldwell over the course of several years to produce her biography, Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera. Matlock has had more than 50 exhibits of her photographs, as well as a series of exhibits by photographer Donald Schomacker.