Neale Bearden got framed for her 74th birthday.
In 1993, her daughters took 13 of the amateur artist's paintings to the Heath Gallery. They removed the art on the gallery walls. They replaced them with their mother's oils and watercolors.
Mrs. Bearden thought she was attending an artist's reception. She got gussied up.
"She was there about 15 minutes before she realized they were hers," said her daughter, Bettie Bearden Pardee of Newport, R.I.
Maybe it was because Mrs. Bearden was such a good artist, especially when it came to replications. Her favorite artist was the French painter Raoul Dufy.
She started out painting oils, then branched to watercolors and stills.
"She's painted things for people on commission who saw something she did and asked her to do it for them," said another daughter, Neale Bearden Kitchens of Atlanta. " She took art classes from various teachers for probably 50 years."
Selma Beard of Atlanta has been an instructor of sort since the late 1980s.
"We were just a group of girls who got together to paint for fun," Mrs. Beard said. "I helped everybody who needed it, but a lot of them didn't need any help. [Mrs. Bearden] painted very beautifully -- detailed little delicate things."
Mrs. Bearden's middle name should have been "Go." She was always on the move, her daughters said, too busy to complain about life. Which leads to another birthday story.
Four years ago, Mrs. Kitchens asked what she wanted for her birthday.
"I took her on 48 trips in four years," Mrs. Kitchens said. "This is not a joke. It was one trip a month, maybe to the beach or a trip to Arkansas to see her family. We had to go out of town every single month. She loved life so much I think she just died from exhaustion."
A memorial service for Neale Martin Bearden of Atlanta, will be 4:30 Thursday at H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill chapel. She will be buried in her hometown, Pine Bluff, Ark. She died Nov. 11 from congestive heart failure at her home. She was 90.
Small-town living didn't dampen Mrs. Bearden's artistic sense or adventurous spirit. After graduating from Pine Bluff High, she briefly attended the University of Southern California.
In California, she met George Nolan "Butch" Bearden, a Georgia Tech grad who became her husband of 48 years. She was 20. He was 13 years older, an established insurance broker in the Los Angeles area. They married in 1939. Though they lived in California for years, they remained Southerners at heart.
"We were raised Southern in southern California," said her daughter, Mrs. Kitchens. "We grew up eating fried chicken, blackeyed peas and turnip greens."
In 1977, the couple relocated to Atlanta to be near relatives. Mrs. Bearden never worked; she immersed herself in philanthropic endeavors, typically tied to the arts. She supported, among others, the Piedmont Park Conservancy, Atlanta Ballet, High Museum of Art and The Atlanta History Center with her time and resources.
Besides the arts, Mrs. Bearden liked to travel and read. She kept up with business news, especially the stock market. She enjoyed shopping and exhibited impeccable taste.
"She had a great sense of beauty and self-confidence that was never cocky or arrogant," Mrs. Pardee said. "She had a natural sense of beauty and elegance that people were always commenting on."
Additional survivors include one grandchild.
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
