MODEL SUBJECT; VALLEY WOMAN A ROCKWELL FAVORITE.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
RESEDA - She melted a nation's heart back in March of 1929 when she appeared on the cover of the 5 cent Saturday Evening Post - a pouting pout 1 v. pout·ed, pout·ing, pouts v.intr. 1. To exhibit displeasure or disappointment; sulk. 2. To protrude the lips in an expression of displeasure or sulkiness. little girl holding her sick doll up to an old country doctor so he could check its heartbeat with his stethoscope stethoscope (stĕth`əskōp') [Gr.,=chest viewer], instrument that enables the physican to hear the sounds made by the heart, the lungs, and various other organs. The earliest stethoscope, devised by the French physician R. T. H. . It would become one of Norman Rockwell's most endearing, popular magazine covers, still hanging somewhere in just about every doctor's office in the country 71 years later. Connie Miller, 81, sees it all the time when she makes the rounds of her medical appointments, never failing to smile and say hi to that old country doc in the picture - her grandfather, Charles Morton Charles Morton (28 January 1907, Illinois, USA - 26 October 1966, North Hollywood, California, was an American actor. His career started in the late silent era as a leading man and continued into sound features and finally television. , a builder in real life. ``People in the waiting room usually give me the strangest looks when I say hi, so I tell them that's my grandpa and me,'' Miller says, laughing. ``I can tell by their expressions they're thinking this woman really does need to see a doctor.'' No, the Reseda woman's as sane and down-to-earth as all of Rockwell's people were back when the artist began drawing real people from real life to chronicle America. In Thomas Buechner's ``Norman Rockwell Noun 1. Norman Rockwell - United States illustrator whose works present a sentimental idealized view of everyday life (1894-1978) Rockwell : A Sixty-Year Retrospect,'' the author talks about the Rockwell years from 1916 through the late 1930s when the artist lived in New Rochelle New Rochelle (rōshĕl`), city (1990 pop. 67,625), Westchester co., SE N.Y., on Long Island Sound; settled by Huguenots 1688, inc. as a village 1858, as a city 1899. , N.Y., where more than a third of his 322 Post covers originated. Rockwell would spend countless hours scouring scouring characterized by scour. scouring disease a colloquial name for secondary nutritional copper deficiency. his community for just the right props, costumes and models, many of them New Rochelle's own children. One of the kids Buechner talks about in detail is young Connie June Humphrey, the daughter of Walter Beach Walter Beach III was an American college and professional football player. A safety, he played college football at the Central Michigan University, and played professionally in the American Football League for the Boston Patriots in 1960 and 1961, and in the NFL for the Cleveland Humphrey, also an artist of that era. He and Rockwell shared their very first studio, the hayloft of a barn in New Rochelle. ``I was 10 years old, and the doctor's office was the first of eight Post Rockwell covers I would be on into my teen-age years,'' said Connie, who is moving next week from the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. after more than 50 years to live with her daughter in Denver. The Reseda home she has lived in for the last 40 years is a shrine to Rockwell's work, including original Post covers and personal letters from Rockwell to her father. ``My grandfather, a successful builder in New Rochelle, was a favorite model for Rockwell and appeared on dozens of covers, along with my brother and me. ``He liked us because we could sit still for long periods of time without fidgeting too much. He called us the rocks of Gibraltar. ``That doctor's office cover took about a week for him to draw, and I got $1 an hour. I thought I was rich.'' Over at Unique Coiffures in Reseda, where Connie has been having her hair done by hairdresser Anita Krueger for more than 15 years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time little girl with the sick doll is a popular patron. ``It's amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. the effect those Rockwell covers have had on people throughout the years,'' Anita said Monday. ``Connie will talk about the stories behind the ones she posed for, and all the customers just sit there mesmerized.'' Like the Jan. 23, 1937, cover of a teen-age girl lying sick in bed, sad because she was missing the big high school dance. ``I really did have a bad cold and was in bed one morning when I heard pebbles being thrown against my bedroom window,'' she said. ``It was Mr. Rockwell. He said he needed me to pose for him. ``I told him I was sick, and he said perfect, that's what he was painting. He moved me and my medicines over to a sick bed he had set up in his studio, which was across a field on the other side of the street.'' Or the story of the time her dad stopped by Rockwell's new studio and found the artist with a bad case of painter's block. ``He said he had a deadline to meet and no ideas of what to draw,'' Connie said. ``Dad said put up a mirror and draw yourself.'' That cover, with Rockwell - pipe in mouth and peering around his easel into a mirror - became one of his most popular. The beauty of looking back on all those Rockwell years as a child model is that none of the kids in New Rochelle took it seriously, Connie says. ``I was never allowed to think that this would ever be anything important,'' she said. ``One day, I came home from high school and asked my mom if she had seen the cover of the new Post I was on that week. ``Mom said, `Connie June, I want you to peel these potatoes for dinner right now.' She didn't say anything about the cover. It was no big deal. ``That's just the way it was - real life, real people. The only thing I wish was that I had saved all the paintings and things Mr. Rockwell threw away. ``He was a perfectionist per·fec·tion·ism n. 1. A propensity for being displeased with anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards. 2. , and if it wasn't just right, it went into the trash can In the Macintosh, a simulated garbage can used for deleting files and folders. The trash can keeps the files intact in case the user wants to restore them, but can be "emptied" from time to time to save disk space. . It's a shame, because his rejects are better t artists are painting today.'' Amen. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Connie Miller, 81, holds one of Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post editions that she and her grandfather posed for in 1929. (2) A Valley resident for more than 50 years, Connie Miller, one of Norman Rockwell's favorite subjects, will pack up her house and move to Denver. David R. Crane/Staff Photographer |
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