Amelia Lee Cunningham

Amelia Lee Cunningham, artist and painter, died on November 30, 2010, as the result of an automobile accident in Taos, New Mexico. Lee, the daughter of Jane Cunningham and Lou Galosy of Longview, and Bruce Cunningham of Austin, was born May 14, 1952, in Longview, Texas.

As a child, Lee attended Trinity Day School and graduated from Longview High School in 1970. She attended Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, on a full academic scholarship, and graduated with honors in 1973. She studied at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, and later received her Master of Fine Arts degree, with honors, from the University of Texas at Austin.

Lee was a ninth-generation Texan, with family ancestors in the Longview area dating to the early 1800s.

For several years during the 1980s, Lee taught art classes at Trinity School of Texas in Longview, and was a talented painter, sculptor and potter. Lee's love for painting and art began at the age of 7, and by age 16, she was first published in a modern art periodical in Paris, France. She was a featured artist in a number of art galleries across the United States. Most recently, Lee opened her own art studio and gallery in Taos, New Mexico. Not bound to any one style or process, she produced abstract as well as figurative oil paintings, mosaic tile installations, welded metal functional sculpture, pottery and mixed media masks and wall hangings. Her works, spanning four decades, can be viewed on her website at www.cunninghamworks.webuda.com.

In addition to her love of art, Lee was an avid outdoor enthusiast. She loved hiking in the mountains of New Mexico and kayaking the rivers and streams. She was a lifetime member of Trinity Episcopal Church of Longview.

Lee is survived by her parents; her son, Alan Blair Cammack of Taos, New Mexico; and one grandson, Owen James Dunn. She is also survived by an aunt, Amelia "Mimi Castleberry Tierney of Flagler Beach, Florida; and cousins, Sean Tierney of San Francisco, California, Minnette Carpenter of Jefferson, Texas, and Sicily Williams of Houston.

A family memorial service will be held in Taos, New Mexico, at a future date.