Lois Bartlett Tracy

Lois Tracy Obituary

Tracy, Lois Bartlett
Dec. 9, 1901 - April 8, 2008

Lois Bartlett Tracy, 106, Englewood, died April 8, 2008.
The services will be private.
Survivors include her sister, Leah Lasbury of Englewood; sons Donald Walker of Michigan and Nathan of North Carolina, 9 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
She inspired us all and will be missed.
Lois Tracy was a well-known artist and educator with a spirit of adventure. She published two books, earned a master's degree and traveled the world with her husband, Harry Tracy, until his death in 1985. Her paintings hang in the Smithsonian Museum, New York Museum of Modern Art and many private collections.
The Englewood Arts Alliance will have a collection of her paintings on display starting May 1, 2008, for three days. The family will be on hand to welcome her friends on opening night from 6 to 8 p.m. at 477 W. Dearborn St.

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Published by Herald Tribune on Apr. 25, 2008.

Memories and Condolences
for Lois Tracy

7 Entries

William Maxwell

April 28, 2023

I am sitting in the Wise County Public Library using a public computer, and seeing a painting by Lois Tracy on the wall above the main desk. This Library is on the site of a former apple orchard used by Lois Tracy to teach alfresco painting to her art students at Clinch Valley College of the University of Virginia at Wise, Virginia.
The painting behind the main desk is, appropriately, of two apple trees in bloom - white blossomed - and a splendid example of Ms. Tracy's best.
I once asked Lois "How do you know when a painting is finished/" Her quick reply was "Why, when there's life in it!" And life is in this painting: the depth of perspective, the obvious movement of the boughs of the flowering tree, the light and the shade. Amazing! A delight to gaze at!
Ms. Tracy had two exhibits at this Library in past years. Many of her best works, large and small, were sold from these exhibits.
In her books on art, she told how the landscape of this area of coal mines, railroads, coke ovens, the rock facings, the soil layers, all affected her profoundly. She eagerly painted them all.
I wonder where all of those fascinating paintings she sold are now? There are only a few modern landscapes, abstracts, and genre paintings here in the Wise County Public Library.
Marvelous memories of Lois. So few of her friends left here now.
PS - The University of Virginia's College at Wise (formerly, in Ms. Tracy's time, Clinch Valley College of the U. of Virginia), has a few of her paintings, large and small.
I so enjoy thinking of her. Bill Maxwell, Retired Faculty, UVAWISE.

Marilyn Maxwell

May 2, 2008

I am thankful for all the many things that Lois could "see", even with diminished vision, that she shared with the rest of us. She was truly a woman ahead of her times who paved the way for so many. It was always a memorable and enriching experience to be in her presence. Though almost fifty years older than me, I always found it impossible to match her energy and enthusiasm.
She was truly one of a kind -- Today's world is in despearte need of many more Lois Tracys. My deepest condolences to the family.

William Maxwell

May 2, 2008

Lois Tracy's friends and art students in Southwest Virginia will always remember her fondly as artist, art teacher and a community developer, during -and after- the years she lived at Wise, Virginia. While her husband Harry managed the Inn at Wise, where she had her studio on the upper storey, Lois fell in love with the mountainscapes and the artifacts of Appalachian mining culture. She brought for the first time to this area, and taught, the principles of modern art she learned from Hans Hofmann and John Marin. Lois initiated discussion of, and advocated vigorously for, the creation of a branch of the University of Virginia in Southwest Virginia. Her desire to see better access to higher liberal education in Southwest Virginia, especially for the women, has led the University of Virginia's College at Wise to regard her as one of the 'Founding Mothers' of the school. Lois was the first art teacher at the College.
She also, with professor Helen Lewis, arranged the first public meeting to discuss the idea of a coal severance tax to benefit the coal-mining counties of Southwest Virginia. Every coal-producing county in Virginia now collects the severance tax. A remarkable woman indeed, innovative, imaginative, prolific, who showed us living in these southern mountains a new image of our world.

William Maxwell
UVAW, retired

Carroll Swayze

May 2, 2008

The world will miss Lois Tracy. She was kind and caring and shared so much with me about how to live the life of an artist. What an amazing life she had. What an amazing world she experienced in all those years. She inspired me to be a better artist and a better person and to enjoy the simplest things that life has to offer. I will never forget the love and caring way she spoke to me "artist to artist" as she always used to say. I promise to continue the adventure...

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Donn Roll

April 30, 2008

Lois was a kind person and an amazing artist. I am pleased to have known her over these many years. I am a better person for it! Our only condolence is imagining the wonderful things that she can "see" now. It is a great loss to Englewood as well as the arts community.

Joseph & Lorraine Schroeder

April 25, 2008

Dear Todd & Mary,

Our deepest sympathies on the loss of an amazing woman, and one who was so kind to us, just as you were.

Love & Blessings,
Pastors Joseph & Lorraine Schroeder

Virginia Norris

April 25, 2008

Leah: What a great loss to you and your family...my sincerest sympathy

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