CeCe Butcher

CeCe Butcher – one of Kentucky’s finest artists who led an imaginative and expressive life of art, education, food, music, laughter, friendship, light and love – died on August 6, 2025.

Her death came after only a few days in the compassionate care of the doctors and nurses in the hospice unit of Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital.

Well known for her romantic, whimsical, scenic and folk-heritage-inspired artwork, CeCe’s paintings earned statewide recognition. Her painting “Dogwoods & Bluegrass” was chosen to hang in the state capitol rotunda for the Governors Derby Exhibition in 2013.

Her immediately recognizable paintings of landscapes and gardens have graced public spaces such as the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea, St. Joseph Women’s Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky Crafted, the Center for Rural Development, the Lexington Convention Center, and Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital, among others. Patrons snapped up Cece’s work almost before the paint was dry, to adorn homes and businesses from coast to coast – New York to Michigan, New Jersey to Texas, New Hampshire to Florida, Japan to Alaska to California.

Her light will shine on, undiminished, because CeCe painted joy. She painted her way into the hearts and homes of legions of fans. It has been written that her work is “a refuge of delight and bright cheer…a defense against ugliness. (Her paintings) make you smile. They make you feel good about the planet.” In her own words, CeCe said, “I’m happy to be able to use my art vision for the well-being of others.”

Being a lifelong musician, two of her most treasured awards include being chosen as Artist of the Year at both the Master Musicians Festival in Somerset and the ROMP music festival in Owensboro. Near the end of her life, Cece developed a popular new market for her art by printing her watercolors of wildflowers and gardens on huge vinyl banners, attracting buyers from across the country.

Of paramount importance to CeCe was her career as an art educator. She was passionate about working with Kentucky’s school children, easily finding common ground with youngsters and showing them how to express their creativity through art. She graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a major in art. In Jackson County, she was a traveling art teacher. In Pulaski County, she was an art instructor at Pulaski County High School and Somerset High School. After retirement from the public school system, she gave private art lessons at her studio in the Carnegie Center.

Created with the same attention to color and detail as her artwork was CeCe’s skill at turning fresh food into a palette on a plate. Scores of lucky friends who were her guests at dinnertime will never forget the meals she placed before them. Afterward would come the music. Dozens of friends would gather at her home on the shore of Lake Cumberland to play bluegrass and folk music, with CeCe joining in on mandolin, keyboard, guitar and vocals. The life she lived with her husband and best friend of 49 years, Tom Butcher, was a cornucopia of beauty they shared freely with all.

Cecelia Jasper Butcher was born on September 25, 1949 to George and Maxine Rainwater Jasper, the youngest of their three daughters. CeCe and her two sisters grew up in Dayton, Ohio before the family moved to Mintonville, Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1963. Already by the time she was three years old, CeCe had decided to become an artist like her mother. She wanted to paint because it made her mother so happy. This desire to make others happy through her art became CeCe’s driving force, her magic that she shared freely. And by the time she was a freshman at Nancy High School – where she met and became friends with her future husband, Tom – her artistry was so respected that she was painting posters for football and basketball games, theater events and dances. After a lifetime of loving and sharing exuberant laughter with her friends, they now lament that losing CeCe leaves a hole in the world, a rip that will remain open forever.

CeCe was predeceased by her parents and sisters, Theresa Bean and Sandy Gould. She is survived by her husband, Tom, whom she married in 1976 and with whom she traveled extensively in the United States and abroad, always with an eye keened toward beauty and future works of art. Other survivors include a son, William Matthew Dalton; a grandson, Cody Dalton; scores of devoted friends and prior students; and their pet, Poppy.

Her visitation will be on Thursday, August 21, 2025 from 11:00am until 1:00pm at Lake Cumberland Funeral Home.  

A “Celebration of Life “will follow on Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 1:00pm at the Chapel of Lake Cumberland Funeral Home.  Bro. Burney Manning will officiate the service.

You are welcome to view the obituary and send condolences to the family at our website:  www.LakeCumberlandFuneralService.com

Lake Cumberland Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements for CeCe Butcher.