06 November 2010

She Led a Colorful Life


I photographed this tombstone in the Ferncliff Cemetery located in Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, on 11 September 2010.

The 21 December 2003 obituary (Springfield News-Sun, page 11D) of Martha Ellen Ringwald Downey Patterson states she was born 12 March 1914 in Anderson, Indiana, to Clarence and Corrine (Thompson) Ringwald.

She attended the Dayton Art Institute and had previously owned and operated Park Ave. Gallery in Dayton, Ohio.  Martha was a member of the Dayton and Springfield Museums of Art, American Water Color Society, Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors, and Art League of Manatee County, Florida.  She had painted for President Richard Nixon, comedian Paul Lynde, talk show hostess Virginia Graham, and others.

I think this is a very appropriate memorial for someone who loved to paint.

@ 2010, copyright Yolanda Campbell Lifter.  All rights reserved.