Elizabeth "Betty" Ash

Elizabeth (Betty) Ash, born April 30, 1936. in Can-ton, Ohio, to Ruth and Ken-neth Ash, died at Tidewell Hospice on March 29, 2009, following a 2-1/2 year, all-out war with one of the most ferocious breast can-cers known. No one could have fought harder or more valiantly, for even during multiple bouts of radiation and chemo-therapy, she put her head down and her elbows out and went to work with a smile. She reminded us of the words of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes: "The soul and the spirit have re-sources which are astonish-ing. Like wolves and other creatures, they can exist on very little -- and sometimes, for a long time, on nothing at all." She was the single most talented artist we have ever known. Her work included but was not limited to clay and stoneware sculpture, enameling, silversmithing, nude drawings in charcoal/ ink, modern acrylic paint-ings, custom tile, and fused glass. She received a Bache-lor of Fine Arts degree from The Cleveland Institute of Art. Her first teacher was the world-renown Japanese potter, Toshiko Takeazu. Her work is owned by The Cleveland Museum of Art and The Butler Institute of Art and has been likened to the sculpture of Isamu No-guchi. Betty was Head of Design at Chris-Craft Boats, worked in Graduate Admis-sions at Ohio State Univer-sity, and was Design Coor-dinator at The Cleveland Institute of Art. She was named Head of the Pottery Department at The Art League of Manatee, Artist of the Month by Island Gal-lery West, Holmes Beach, and maintained her own studio named "Genesis" in Bradenton. She also worked for The Florida Kid-Care 20/20 VISTA Volunteer Program, bringing afford-able health care to indigent children. At 17, Betty was a tennis star, winning The Canton Women's Singles Title, 6-1, 6-4, and cited as her heroes Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, and Arthur Ashe. She was an aficionado of the culinary arts (Julia Child and "Two Fat Ladies", in particular), loved a well-written mystery, sought out cartoons by Charles Ad-dams and George Price, and the work of Billie Holiday, George Shearing, Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Georgia O'Keefe, Paul Klee, and Louise Nevelson. She loved "feetball", rainy days, and B&B (Benedictine & Brandy.) She laughed a lot and believed in the exis-tence of angels. She was supportive of women's rights, breast-cancer and AIDS research, National Public Radio, and Ending Hunger/Empty Bowls. Survivors include her 16-pound cat, Count Basie, her friend, Priscilla, her siblings Nancy, Sonny, Jane, and Margie, and a myriad of nieces and nephews who thought she was the great-est thing since sliced bread. We will miss her Blue Grass Perfume and her blue-gray, November eyes, full of the light of intelli-gence, reminiscent of brushwood smoke in au-tumn and bittersweet upon a broken wall. Special thanks to her sur-geon, Jose Erbella, MD, Kris Blaylock, RN, and the entire staff of Tidewell Hospice of Palmetto for their exquisite care and kindness. Special thanks, too, to friends Elaine, Jackie, M.R., Diane, Suzanne, Nancy, Irene, Kathy, Sharon, Cynthia, Olivia, Rosie, Margaret, El-eanor, Catherine,, Keith, Juanita, Alan , Chris, and Brook for their continuous outpourings of love and support during these, the most difficult times of Betty's life. A "Celebration of Life" will be held at The Art League of Manatee where Betty taught pottery and enameling, 209 9th Street West, Bradenton, on Sun-day, May 3rd, 2 - 4 PM. Covell Funeral Home is serving the family.