Sep. 29, 2020
Tribute to Martin Bergin
We are saddened to learn that cowboy poet and master saddlemaker Martin J. Bergin, of Overland, Mo., passed away on September 24, 2020. His funeral services are scheduled for Thursday, October 1, 2020, with Ortmann’s Funeral Home in Overland (obituary link follows this tribute). Mr. Bergin was a longtime participant in projects of Missouri Folk Arts and its predecessors the Missouri Friends of the Folk Arts and the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center. Through Missouri Friends of the Folk Arts, Bergin often took to the stage or demonstrated at the Frontier…
Sep. 11, 2020
Tribute to Sarah Blevins Denton
Sarah Ann Blevins Denton, 1956-2020 Two weeks ago, we were shocked and so sad to learn that our friend, Ozark regional community scholar Sarah Denton, died unexpectedly from a heart attack on her morning walk near her home in scenic Calico Rock, Arkansas. When we first met Sarah, she lived in West Plains, Missouri, the location of our 2010 community scholar workshop that started on Veterans Day. We quickly learned that she was a great photographer, with an incredible eye for portraits, landscapes, and seeing beauty in the ordinary. Anyone who…
Dec. 8, 2019
Tribute to Lois Jane Mueller
We at the Missouri Folk Arts Program are saddened to learn from Barry Bergey that master quilter Lois Mueller died on Wednesday, December 4, 2019. Formerly of St. Louis, the Muellers relocated to New Haven in the Missouri River Valley to establish their Röbller Vineyard in 1988, first vintage in 1990. She never stopped quilting. Mrs. Mueller was a master quilter in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 1989 with apprentice Susan Gillespie and again in 1990 for applique quilting with apprentice Debbie Ruppel Wagenseller. Before her participation in TAAP, Lois and Bob…
Sep. 11, 2019
Tribute to Patricia S. Hight
It is our honor to pay tribute to Patricia S. “Pat” Hight, a recent apprentice in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. We learned via her Facebook posts and a Caring Bridge online journal that over the last several months Pat sought treatment for cancer, then recently chose to enter hospice care, riding out her last days rocking on her porch and checking the late summer progress of her garden. She died yesterday at home. Master storyteller Marideth Sisco and apprentice Patricia Hight tell tales at the 2017 Backyard Concert Series in Jefferson City. Mo. Photo credit: Deborah A. Bailey Pat…
May 17, 2019
Tribute to Becky Walstrom
The storytelling community in Missouri and beyond grieves at the unexpected loss of Becky Walstrom earlier this week. We at the Missouri Folk Arts Program thank master storyteller, author, and community scholar Dr. Gladys Caines Coggswell for writing a tribute to Ms. Walstrom, which we’re sharing here in its entirety. Rebecca Sue (Hull) “Becky” Walstrom left a lasting impression on all of the lives that she touched. She was certainly one of Missouri’s invaluable treasures. She was born on April 6, 1948 in Eldon, Mo. and suddenly, shockingly left us on May 13, 2019 in…
Oct. 21, 2018
Tribute to Ann Rynearson
It seems these messages come far too often now. We were heartbroken to learn that Dr. Ann Rynearson, who retired in 2009 from International Institute St. Louis, died in late September. Ann Rynearson was influential for many years upon Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. On occasion, she served as a volunteer panelist who reviewed TAAP applications for funding. On several occasions, though, she put her cultural anthropologist hat on, seeing the artistic expressions that newcomers carried with them as they resettled in Missouri; the best of those artists, she encouraged…
Sep. 30, 2018
Tribute to Becky Schroeder
We’ve learned sad news that Becky Boies Schroeder died on September 14, 2018. What a loss! So many knew Becky and her late husband Dolf for their tireless research and support of Missouri history and culture organizations. She herself was a tenacious editor for the University of Missouri Press Missouri Heritage Readers Series, which covered just about everything Missouri–including Gladys Caines Coggswell‘s 2009 Stories from the Heart: Missouri’s African American Heritage. As her family obituary notes, Becky Schroeder was “acutely modest” and “widely honored.” It was our honor…
Sep. 10, 2018
Tribute to Betty Curry
We were sad to learn that Betty Curry died recently. Mrs. Curry and her late husband Roger Curry were widely recognized as keepers of an Ozark white oak basket making tradition. Both Mr. and Mrs. Curry inherited the tradition from long lines of ancestors (Gibsons of Arkansas in his family and Missouri Derryberrys in hers).* Photo credit: Fieldworker Jeanette Lowry (on behalf of the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center–MFAP’s precursor) took the photo below at the Curry home workshop in July 1986 for archival purposes. Mrs. Curry carried on the tradition until fairly recently, according to a 2015 article by …
Aug. 27, 2018
Tribute to Lawrence Schuler
Lawrence Schuler (center) dances a waltz with his great-niece Jody at the Old Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival in 2010.Photo credit: Lisa Higgins We were sad to hear that Lawrence Schuler, one of the Ava Dancers, passed away August 23 at his home in Texas. Over the years, we often saw Mr. Schuler dancing at events (like Bethel Youth Fiddle Camp and Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival) with his late sister Edna Mae Davis, his niece Cathy Marriott, his sister Evelyn Pruitt, and other family members and friends. They have always been up to…
April 18, 2018
Tribute to Joseph Frank Patrickus II
We at the Missouri Folk Arts Program were incredibly sad to learn that Joseph Frank Patrickus, II (Joe) died on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. Joe was an old friend of the Missouri Folk Arts Program, even before it was called the Missouri Folk Arts Program. He was an early participant in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, where he taught apprentices Joseph F. Patrickus, III and Franklin Holler in 1987, the third year of the program. Joe went on to teach more apprentices, including his daughter Kate, between 1989 and 2007. The Missouri Folk…