STANLEY "GORDON" WETMORE

Stanley “Gordon” Wetmore, of Signal Mountain TN formerly of Memphis, an interna- tionally renowned Portrait Artist and founding chairman of The Portrait Society of America passed away August 26, 2011 at the Hospice of Chattanooga, TN. He was born on July 9, 1938 in Memphis to Stanley and Clara Wetmore, who predeceased him. Recently he became critically ill after contracting a very rare condition called Prion Disease. He attended Germantown Junior High School, and graduated from Memphis’ Messick High School. While serving in the Air Force, he studied at Valdosta (GA) State University and later attended University of Memphis. He received an Art degree from University of Tennessee/Chattanooga and continued studies at The Art Students League, New York. Throughout his legendary career Wetmore studied with many well known, accomplished Portrait Artists. He was a member of the Artists Fellowship of New York, Oil Painters of America and board member of Overseers of Opera Boston. During his lifetime, Wetmore created more than 800 portraits of many distinguished and well-known subjects including President Richard M. Nixon, Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples, Dr. and Mrs. Norman Vincent Peale, Leon Uris, Princess Grace and others including Stephen Reynolds, CEO Baptist Healthcare, Memphis. Wetmore enjoyed recalling his first ‘commissioned’ portrait of a fellow Air Force Airman’s girlfriend which he sold for $25! His works are in the collections of The White House, The Royal Palace of Monaco, Harvard University, Duke University, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, Presbyterian Hospital, New York, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, the Harvard Medical Center and countless other remarkable collections spanning the globe. In 1978 and 1998, a collection of Wetmore’s paintings was published in the best-selling art book, Promised Land, with text by noted author Leon Uris and Israeli statesman Abba Eban. Irelend-Portrayed by Gordon Wetmore, with text by the artist and foreword by Princess Grace of Monaco appeared in 1980. Gordon Wetmore’s Prayers for Boys and Girls was published in 1986. In 2004, Vanishing Kingdoms, with twenty portraits by Wetmore and text by Ambassador Walter J.P. Curley was published in Ireland by Lilliput Press. He is survived by his wife, Connie; daughters, Amy, Alexandra and Abigal Wetmore of Signal Mountain; sisters, Jane Hester, Kim Stubblefield (Keith), and Virginia Vaughan (Robert), all of Collierville TN, Carolyn Burkett of Mountain View, AR; brothers, Louis Wetmore (Julia) of Hickory, NC, Jimmy Street (Debbie), of Southaven MS and Art Street (Melana) of Oakland TN; 22 nieces and nephews; and 32 grandnieces and nephews. Funeral arrangements are incomplete and being handled by Chattanooga Funeral Home, East Chapel.