Amy Freeman Lee; San Antonio artist; cultural icon
Hyfler/Rosner
this woman, much of it fascinating.
Amy Freeman Lee 1914-2004 ; Beloved S.A. artist,
humanitarian dies ; Lee, 89, left her imprint on many
cultural, educational institutions.
San Antonio Express-News
Amy Freeman Lee, the nationally recognized artist,
lecturer, author, educator and humane movement leader who
helped shape and nurture the arts in San Antonio, died
Tuesday afternoon at Methodist Hospital. She was 89 .
The cause of death was unknown, but she had been in frail
health for some time and had been in the hospital for more
than two weeks.
Funeral arrangements are pending at Porter Loring Mortuary.
Also, plans are in the works for a memorial service in
August.
Marilyn Wilhelm, a Houston educator and probably her closest
friend, called Lee an "immortal woman."
"This divine, dynamic woman was so selfless, and she had
such courage," Wilhelm said. "She made you laugh and, while
you're laughing, in goes the medicine."
Lee left her imprint on a number of cultural and educational
institutions.
Along with Pauline Goldsmith, she raised money to bring
Italian emigre conductor Max Reiter to the city in 1938, an
effort that led to the founding of the San Antonio Symphony.
As an arts critic for the San Antonio Express in 1939 and
later with KONO radio, Lee introduced sorely lacking
critical standards to the city, but she was never elitist
about the arts.
In 2003, she recalled encountering racism decades before at
an early meeting of the symphony board when she urged
members to reach out to the Hispanic and black communities.
"You would have thought I'd suggested bringing in
prostitutes from the reaction I got," she said.
In 1949, she helped organize the Texas Watercolor Society. A
few years ago, she donated 105 artworks from her collection
of nationally known artists to another major institution,
the McNay Art Museum.
As head of the board of trustees at the University of the
Incarnate Word from 1973 to 1990, she nurtured the liberal
arts and lively programs in music, art and theater.
From the San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind to the Wilhelm
Schole International Teacher Training Institute in Houston,
she provided support, ideas and leadership to countless
civic, educational and cultural groups.
Among Lee's numerous honors, in 1985 the Humane Society of
the United States gave her its highest award, the Joseph
Wood Krutch Medal.
She also received the Maury Maverick Award from the American
Civil Liberties Union and a lifetime achievement award from
the University Round Table.
In a profile in the San Antonio Express-News in January
2002, Lee explained that her core belief was in the unity of
life and in reverence for life in all its forms.
A petite woman, Lee had lost a lot of weight in recent years
and worried about her loss of energy.
"For 22 years after I turned 65, I went full-tilt," Lee said
at lunch a month before her 89th birthday. "But over the
last two years, I haven't been able to do as much, and it
bothers me. I'm down to painting and writing now. I don't
have the stamina for the lectures."
For Lee, going "full-tilt" meant maintaining three calendars
and keeping up a busy schedule of painting, writing - always
in longhand - and lecturing. The author of four books, she
wrote for hundreds of publications. Over 50 years, she gave
more than 2,700 lectures.
The artist had more than 1,250 exhibitions, including one at
Texas Lutheran University in 2000. Her friend, artist Kelly
Fearing, said her richly wrought watercolors were filled
with fantasy and imagination inspired by surrealism and the
"through-the-looking-glass" images of Swiss-born artist Paul
Klee.
Born to Julia Freeman and Joe Novich at Santa Rosa Hospital
on Oct. 3, 1914, Lee grew up in Seguin.
When she was 4, the influenza epidemic of 1918 took her
mother's life, and her Grandmother Emma Freeman, a strong,
smart woman with a firm sense of what was right and proper
for a young lady, took over.
Amy saw little of her father after that, and her grandmother
legally adopted her.
When she was 6, she traveled to New York, where she viewed
paintings by Canaletto at the Frick Museum.
Seeing Canaletto's scenes of Venice was a transforming
experience. At 6 1/2, she painted "Venice (after
Canaletto)," a remarkably executed work for someone so
young. It remains in her private collection and appeared in
her TLU exhibition.
"Children do things because they don't know they can't," she
said of the precocious work. "Ten years later I probably
couldn't have done it because I was instilled with all sorts
of restrictions."
Lee attended schools in Seguin until she was 15, then she
and her grandmother moved to San Antonio so she could attend
Saint Mary's Hall. Her heart was set on going east to attend
Smith College and she was accepted, but her grandmother
didn't approve the move to Massachusetts.
In 1931, Lee, an expert rider in a family that raised and
showed American-bred saddle horses, suffered a serious fall
while exercising a friend's jumper.
She broke her back and was in a body cast for a year. The
injury was improperly treated, and even with corrective
treatment six years later, she was left with a badly bent
back.
Lee never talked about the injury with self-pity or regret.
After the accident, she continued to ride and, with trainer
Frank Heathman, to show horses around the country for years.
In 1937 she married Ernest Lee, who served as an aide to
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II.
"Ernest was a wonderful gentleman," she said of their
three-year union. "But I think it was a question of two
people who really didn't have anything in common. It won't
work."
From 1934 to 1942, Lee earned degrees at Incarnate Word
College. With Fearing's encouragement, Lee was named to the
College of Fine Arts' advisory council in 1954.
Inspired by dreams, Lee in 1968 and 1972 used colored neon
tubing to sculpt a series called "Soul Signs." Assembling a
collection of distinctive rocks, she explored the ancient
Chinese art of Suiseki in another series.
The late Maury Maverick Jr., a good friend, said Lee's
courage and civilized thinking made a difference in San
Antonio, especially during the communist hunting days of
Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Sister Margaret Patrice Slattery, president of
then-Incarnate Word College, invited Lee to move into a
small suite in the college dormitory. She liked it so much
she stayed for seven years, building rapport and
understanding with the students and even enjoying their
pranks.
Although she traveled through this country, Mexico and
Canada, Lee never ventured to Europe to see its great art or
the Venice she painted as a child.
Attorney Jane Macon said it was fear of flying. She tried to
get Lee on a plane many times, promising her plenty of
champagne to ease her fears, but something always came up.
True to her grandmother's teachings, Lee had her life in
order. Her file cabinets full of papers will go to Texas
Tech University. She had been working on her memoirs.
Her artwork will go to a trusted, discerning friend, not
named, who will decide what to give to museums or
institutions.
Whether through painting, writing or speaking, she hoped,
"my legacy will be that, at least in some small way, my
efforts have made the world a little more humane."
In an interview for the 2002 profile, she described herself
as "a nondenominational theist," embracing principles from
all the world's religions, including a belief in
reincarnation.
She wasn't sure she would make it to heaven, but with her
deep love of animals and a lifetime of beloved pets, she set
down a strict condition.
"If I get up there and my dogs aren't there, I'm asking God
for my money back."