Donley County Obituaries
2003
Source: Amarillo Globe-News
January 2003
~~~~~~~~
Helena Elizabeth Catoe
CLARENDON - Helena Elizabeth Catoe, 80, formerly of
Clarendon, of Amarillo, died Monday, Dec. 30, 2002.
Services will be at 10 a.m. today in First United
Methodist Church in Clarendon with the Rev. Marty Hamrick
of Amarillo and the Rev. James Ivey Edwards, pastor,
officiating. Burial will be in Citizens Cemetery by
Robertson Funeral Directors. Mrs. Catoe was born
Feb. 21, 1922, in Ashtola, Donley County. She was a
longtime resident of El Paso, and then a resident of
Clarendon for several years before moving to Amarillo
recently. She was a foster care parent for many years in
El Paso. She was a public school math teacher for
28 years before her retirement. After retirement, she was
an active volunteer in the Methodist Church in El Paso,
Donley County Senior Citizens Association in Clarendon
and in the activities of First United Methodist Church in
Clarendon. She was recently named Amarillo
Globe-News Volunteer of the Day for her work at Park
Place Towers. She was a member of Polk Street Methodist
Church in Amarillo. She was preceded in death by an
infant son; a brother; and five sisters.
Survivors include a son, Leslie Catoe of Odessa; three
grandchildren, Ivy, Daniel and Bryan; a sister, Willa
Cook of Amarillo; 11 nieces and nephews, Joe Lovell of
Claude, Jim Lovell and David Butler, both of Dumas, Jan
Chandler, Lea Reynolds and Dean Cook, all of Amarillo,
Elaine Poovey of Stinnett, Bob Poovey of Yoder, Colo.,
Kenneth Butler of Quanah, Bill Ramsay of Borger and Patsy
Robertson of Clarendon; numerous great-nieces and
nephews; several great-great-nieces and nephews; many
great-great-great-nieces and nephews; and many special
friends. Casket bearers will be Sam Lowry, Don
Williams, Jim Shelton, Paul Bivens, Ted Shaller, Doug
Lowe, Jack Moreman and Willard Skelton.
Amarillo Globe-News, Jan. 1, 2003
~~~~~~~~
Olive Freda Vandruff
Bugbee
CLARENDON - Olive Freda Vandruff Bugbee, 94, died
Saturday, Jan. 4, 2003.
Memorial services will be at a later date. Arrangements
are by Robertson Funeral Directors. Mrs. Bugbee was
born in Martin's Ferry, Ohio, on April 17, 1908, to Ross
and Mame Buskirk Vandruff. She spent much of her
childhood traveling in the Southwestern United States
with her geologist father and her mother.
In Chicago she studied with the painter Edmund Giesbert
at the University of Chicago. She also studied with
Chicago sculptors Elisabeth H. Hibbard and Frederick C.
Hibbard in the mid 1940s, eventually becoming an
assistant to them. She moved to San Antonio in 1931
where she became an assistant to sculptor Pompeo Coppini.
About 1937 she married the engraver Charles F. Anderson.
In 1950 she operated a sheep ranch near Kerrville.
While in the Hill Country she became a renowned painter
of animals and birds and was often commissioned to paint
pet and horse portraits.
She met Western artist H.D. Bugbee of Clarendon in 1960,
marrying him the following year and relocating to
Clarendon. Upon Mr. Bugbee's death in 1963, she
succeeded him as curator of art at the Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum until her retirement in 1982. After
retiring she still volunteered at the museum, driving the
150-mile round trip from Clarendon nearly every day until
November 2002. She worked in several media
including pastel, watercolor, casein and oil.
She was a member of the Coppini Academy of Fine Arts in
San Antonio and began exhibiting there in the early
1930s. By the early 1960s she had had numerous solo
exhibitions. Her paintings are found in private
collections across the United States. Among her patrons
were former President Lyndon B. Johnson and Texas
Governor Dolph Briscoe.
Her public commissions consist of murals in Texas and
Oklahoma, including a mural of Palo Duro Canyon for the
First National Bank of Amarillo (now Bank of
America). In 1976 She was included in the landmark
exhibition, "The Woman Artist in the American West,
1860-1960," in Fullerton, Calif. Recently she was
included in the Dictionary of Texas Artist, 1800-1945,
published by Texas A&M University Press.
A memorial exhibition of her paintings will be presented
in the Bugbee Gallery at the Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum in Canyon. The exhibition will include works of
art from her personal collection as well as from the
museum's.
Amarillo Globe-News, Jan. 6, 2003
This page was last updated January 7, 2004.