KASE-Elizabeth Parker Kase, born June 6, 1913, in Pasadena, California, died December 4, 2008, at Casa Dorinda, Montecito, California, age 95. The daughter of Elizabeth Stafford and Edward Parker, Elizabeth (Betty) spent her first three years in Pasadena. In 1917, Betty's sister Suzanne (Dulce) was born, and the Parkers moved to Phoenix, Arizona. The United States was at war, and cotton was a vital component. Edward Parker had been commissioned by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. to manage the cotton ranches surrounding Phoenix. In 1922, the Parkers returned to Pasadena for good where Betty attended Polytechnic School and graduated from Westridge School in 1930. Betty studied art at Mills College for two years and transferred to UCLA, graduating with a BA in Art in 1934. Betty met her future husband, Thomas Mellon Evans of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during a trip to Europe in 1931, and they were married at Pasadena's All Saints Episcopal Church in 1935. They spent their married life in Pittsburgh. After her divorce in 1952, Betty moved to Lake Forest, Illinois, where she met Charles Kase. They were married in Pasadena in 1961. In 1963, the Kases left Lake Forest for Pasadena. In 1968, the Kases bought a weekend home in Montecito, moving there permanently in 1989. Creativity was at the center of Betty's life. Her artistic career was legendary, and her paintings hang in private collections throughout the country. An award-winning painter, Betty worked in ink, watercolor, oil, and collage, and her subject matter ranged from portraiture to pure abstraction. Betty's paintings were highly personal testimonies to a rich and varied life. In addition to being an artist, Betty was a talented poet and memoirist. Her remarkable needlework designs sprang from her mind's eye directly onto the canvas. Betty reflected the world around her with love, careful observation, and a delightful sense of humor. Her creations were personal, accessible, symbolic, and often playful, and they expressed the pulse of their - and her - time and place. Betty is survived by her three sons: Thomas Mellon Evans, Jr., of Grafton, Vermont and Wilson, Wyoming; Edward Parker Evans of New York City and Casanova, Virginia; Robert Sheldon Evans of Greenwich, Connecticut; four grandchildren: Thomas Evans III of Sudbury, Massachusetts; Mark Evans of Deep River, Connecticut, Ashley MacDonald of Sausalito, California, Jonathan Evans of St. Louis, Missouri; nephew James Odriozola of New port Beach and Aptos, California; nieces Julia Pizzinat and Victoria Dillingham of Santa Barbara, California; as well as three great grandchildren and many great nieces and great nephews. Betty was a longtime member of Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club, as well as Birnam Woodand the Valley Club of Montecito, and Colonial Dames of America. Burial at Santa Barbara Cemetery will be private. The family has requested in lieu of flowers that donations be made to the Pasadena Humane Society or Visiting Nurses Association/Hospice of Santa Barbara.
Independent Star - Pasadena (1967) -- 'HE'S A GOOD POSER'-- Sandy (Alexander) Schwarzenbach, at left, seeks- admiration for Solitaire, Schwarzenbach's dog, who posed with him and his, twin, Bobby in center, for painting by Margery Nahl (Mrs. Stephen Williams) Which hangs overhead. She agrees Solitaire is a good' poser. Society Pasadena, California, 'Sunday, July 30, 1967, Southland Artists Paint Way to Fame By RUTH BILLHENIER, Society Editor.
'Three women who can't keep their fingers out of the paint pots are Helen Fowler Bonzi, Elizabeth Parker Kase, and Margery Nahl Wilmans. Their canvases hang in many a Pasadena area home, not to mention homes elsewhere in the world. Margery, who paints under her maiden name, Margery Nahl, has a one-man showing every couple of years in Paris. All three have exhibited in galleries across the United States. "The 'most difficult' painting," Helen Bonzi replies to a question, "is the one you threw away." A good painting, she believes, is never laborious.
However, her most exacting commission was a postmortem portrait of Walter. Bateman's father done from photographs. Helen signs her works, including her oils and the lovely watercolors. She is perhaps best known as, "H. Fowler Bonzi." She did much "portraiture in days past, then when she returned to painting, after a hiatus, portrait had become a "dirty word" and hadn't a look-in at an exhibition, so she worked more with landscapes. 'One Of her favorites -- the shore near San Francisco's Cliff House in early evening.
She loves the San Francisco scene and is now working on three city views which will be in her one-man show next spring at Jack Carr's new gallery on Colorado Boulevard. She is a former student at Otis Art Institute and a graduate of Chouinard.
She-has exhibited in New York, Denver, and all-over Southern California. Her portraits include those of Mrs. Virgil G. Russell, her son Stephen Russell, Claire Burnham, Helen Louise Finkbine, and John Cobb Macfarland."
"How many of her own paintings hang in her home?" "I couldn't count," she laughs. But there is room for a number of works by fellow artists, 'many the gifts of the painters. The list includes Millard Sheets, Phil Dyke, and Jae Carmichael.
"Oils are the most fun to work in," says Helen, but she loves all the media and is extremely versatile. The show she's preparing for Jack Carr will include also watercolors, prints, etchings, serigraphs, and drawings in pencil and ink.
As clever with a needle as a paintbrush is Betty (Mrs. Charles) Kase, who has a handsome 3 x 5-foot needlepoint rug to prove it along with a house full of her paintings. The rug, of heavy yarn, is a copy of an Aubusson tapestry. Her paintings go from portraits that are "very realistic, to landscapes and abstractions."
ARTIST AND MODEL-- Helen Fowler Bonzi, who painted above portrait of Mrs. Virgil G. Russell, poses with Mrs. Russell (Mary Frances Snow), a friend of many years.
Both have lived in Pasadena since girlhood. -- PLAYTIME IN THE PARK ~ Elizabeth Parker Kase (Mrs. Charles) standing in front of painting for son's bachelor apartment showing playtime scene including 'daughter-in-·law holding her son.