Gabrielle Liese

Liese, Gabrielle
Gabrielle died peacefully at home on June 14, 2011. She was born on July 28, 1914 to Dr. and Mrs. William Dennison Morgan (Gabriella Sengastak) of Hartford, Connecticut. During her school years between 1929 and 1931 she spent three to four months each summer in Europe, except in 1928 when her mother decided that Gabrielle and her sister, Dorothea, should see the United States. They drove from Connecticut to Santa Monica, Seattle, took a boat to Alaska and then drove back to Connecticut via a northern route. A two-week stay at Bishop's Lodge in Sante Fe and a mule trip in the Grand Canyon sealed a place in Gabrielle's heart for the southwest country of New Mexico and Arizona. She graduated from the Spence school in New York City in 1933. This period of financial depression and pre-WWII was a time of ferment and frenetic energy in all aspects of the arts. Gabrielle, quite unexpectedly, found herself in the professional theatre playing "part of the scenery" as she called it, on Broadway and on countrywide tours with such prominent theatre artists of the time, as Ethel Barrimore, Eve Le Gallienne, Catherine Cornell, Helen Hayes, Morris Evans, Sir Ralph Richardson, Brian Aherne, Tyrone Power, Max Rhineheart, Norman Bel Geddes and many others. In 1937 Gabrielle decided to change to a more private life than that demanded by the theatre. She and her mother embarked on the SS President Hoover sailing from San Francisco under the new Golden Gate Bridge on their way to the Philippines. After leaving Kobe, Japan the ship ran aground on a reef several hundred yards from a Japanese mandated Island called Hoishoto, now belonging to Taiwan. All passengers were offloaded on to the island to be picked up several days later by another ship and taken to Manila. This was the start of an eight-month trip to Indo China, Siam, Indonesia, the Dutch East Indies and India, with a six-week sojourn in Rome and a recuperative pause before returning to New York. In 1940 She studied interior design as an apprentice in the architectural firm of William Wright Crandall in New York City. In July 1940, she married Theodore William Liese of Danville, Ill., in New York City. Ted was a member of Squadron A 101st Calvary National Guard New York City which in January of 1941, prior to WWII, was ordered to Ft. Devons, Massachusetts with their horses. Gabrielle and Ted rented a house in Groton, Massachusetts, close to Ft Devons. Their son Theodore Burton Morgan Liese was born in September 1941 and in January 1942, after Pearl Harbor, Ted's commission in the US Army Reserve was reactivated and they remained at Ft. Devons until June of 1942 when Ted was sent to England. Gabrielle did not see him again for three years. Their daughter, Gabrielle Brinley Liese was born on March 17, 1943, while Ted was fighting the battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia. Ted went on to be in the African-Sicilian and Italian campaigns while Gabrielle moved to Darien, Connecticut where she had chosen to live during Ted's absence. Gabrielle took courses in Architectural drawing, landscape architecture and was an active member in the Red Cross motor corps, driving service mothers to maternity hospitals, wounded veterans to their service appointments and assisting the emergency staff at the Norwalk Hospital, and she kept reminding her children that they had a father. After Ted's five-year service in the Army, the war was over and life in the eastern seaboard seemed to return to its rather placid outlook as if nothing had happened. Ted and Gabrielle made a major decision to move to the Southwest where Gabrielle's love of New Mexico and Ted's love of horses could be indulged. In 1949 they bought a cattle ranch and they moved permanently to the Prescott area of Arizona where the schools, at that time, ranked 11th in the nation, according to the New York Times. Ted and Gabrielle soon became involved in Prescott and State activities and Gabrielle opened her design studio moving several times landing on Whiskey Row where she maintained it from 1971 - 1999. In the early 70's she became interested in the historical uses of beads, which included aspects of anthropology, archeology, sociology, religions and world trade. After the death of Gabrielle's mother, Ted and Gabrielle started traveling abroad for a few weeks each year combining their interests of archeology and horses. Gabrielle founded The Bead Museum and the Gabrielle Liese Research Library in Prescott in 1986. The museum featured beads from around the world to show how they pertained to various cultures and civilizations. The purpose of The Bead Museum was to "collect and preserve, identify, document and display beads and ornaments used in personal adornment from ancient ethnic and contemporary cultures, covering all periods of history". Its goals are to "educate the public, promote and publish research in these areas and to act as a permanent repository for beads and ornaments and related books and publications". In 1999 The Bead Museum moved to Glendale, Arizona, where it remained until 2011, at which time it was incorporated with the Mingei International Museum in San Diego and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In 2003 Gabrielle was awarded the "Governor's Arts Award Individual Category" through the Arizona Commission of the Arts. Her son, Theodore Burton Morgan Liese, her daughter Gabrielle Brinley Liese Thomas, two grandchildren, Theodore and J'lein Liese and three great grandchildren, as well as her niece, Diane Novakov, survive Gabrielle. Because of her great love of the arts her family is suggesting that in lieu of flowers, her legacy can continue by sending any donation to the Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, San Diego, Ca 92101. Please visit and sign Gabrielle's guestbook at: www.ruffnerwakelin.com. The Arizona Ruffner Wakelin Funeral Home assisted the family with final arrangements.