Lynn Nelson Stacey

LYNN NELSON STACEY

Lynn Nelson Stacey was born May 24, 1903 in Washington, D.C.1 The oldest of four children born to Lou (Stone), a pianist, and Everett Eugene Stacey,2 Lynn grew up primarily in Iowa from the age of two, living first in Sioux City where his father was a school principal and later - after a period in LaCross, Wisconsin - in Des Moines, where his father was an advertising manager with International Harvester, and where Lynn attended West High School.3 Lynn studied at the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, from 1921 to 1925 (completing six semesters)4; thereafter with Charles Atherton Cumming at the Cumming School of Art, Des Moines, IA. and at the National Academy of Design (dates), New York City, where he studied with Raymond Perry Neilson and Francis Coates Jones.5 In 1927 he married fellow artist Dorothy Layman Stacey, from Des Moines, whom he met at the Cumming School of Art.6 They had one child, Mark Lynn Stacey, born in 1940. During the Depression Stacey worked for the PWAP (he was put on the PWAP rolls Jan. 1, 1934 and laid off April 11, 1934, due to cut backs.)7 Stacey was a member of the Iowa Art Guild, founded by Cumming in 1914 to encourage Iowa artists to exhibit their work. He exhibited widely from the 1930s to mid-50s, sending paintings to New Jersey, Michigan, North Dakota, Illinois and Minnesota, as well as throughout Iowa, often winning prizes.8 In 1931, his portrait Antoinette was exhibited at the NAD's winter exhibition.9 At twenty-seven, he was the youngest artist in the show.10 Stacey was president of the Iowa Art Guild from 1938-1942, and national president of Composers, Authors and Artists of America (CAAA) from 1951-1954.11 In 1927 he began working for Freeman Decorating Company founded that year by his college friend Donald S. "Buck" Freeman, with whom he had decorated college parties.12 The company specialized in promotional materials and event decorating, and was national in scope.13 Stacey was the company's Design Director and became 1st VP in 1940. He designed exhibits for such companies as Ford Motor Co. and Mutual of Omaha. From 1941-1951 he was a partner in Freeman-Stacey, billing himself a "story and advertising illustrator."14 During WWII Stacey camouflaged air bases. In 1951 he had his own company in Des Moines: Lynn Stacey Co. Sometime during the 1950s Stacey contracted TB and had to be hospitalized.15 After the death of his wife in 1966, Stacey remarried and moved to California,16 where he painted primarily portraits and figure compositions, his favorite subjects, and talked to art groups. He also developed a new interest, the desert landscape. As an artist he called himself a "Progressive Conservative." 17 In 1972 he began a portrait of Gerald Ford (then House Minority Leader), commissioned by friends of Ford, which he created from sketches made in Ford's Washington, D.C. office.18 Stacey's California residences included Laguna Beach, San Clemente, Borrego Springs, and Palm Desert.19 Around 1978, when developed cancer, he moved to Tucson, AZ, where he died on August 20, 1979.20

END NOTES

1Social Security Death Index

2Iowa State Census Collection, Roll: IA1925-1890.

3I am grateful to Lynn Stacey's son, Mark L. Stacey, for generously sharing written and oral information about his father with me.

4Verifications & Transcripts, Registrar's Office, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.

5Zenobia B. Ness and Louise Orwig (hereafter Ness-Orwig), Iowa Artists of the First Hundred Years, Des Moines: Wallace-Homestead Company, 1939, p. 197. National Academy of Design (NYC) Archives ???

6Mark L. Stacey. Also in undated (ca. mid-1950s) typed manuscript by Lynn Nelson Stacey (hereafter LNS ms.) highlighting milestones and achievements of his life.

7National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Record Group 121, Entry 115, Box 1 (the records of the Public Works Art Project). I am grateful to art historian and author Lea Rosson DeLong for passing this information on to me.

8Ness-Orwig, op. cit., p. 198.

9The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design, 1901-1950, ed. Peter Hastings Falk, Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1990, p. 487.

10Unidentified newspaper clipping, "Iowa Painter in Exhibition," 1931 (handwritten), in Lynn Nelson Stacey scrapbook.

11Clipping from Who's Who in American Art, no date (ca. 1955), in Lynn Nelson Stacey scrapbook.

12LNS ms.

13The company still exists, headquartered in Dallas, TX, and is now a major producer of trade shows.

14Composers, Authors and Artists of America (pamphlet), Spring, 1957.

15LNS ms.

16Information from Mark L. Stacey

17LNS ms.

18Mark L. Stacey and "Art Exhibit at Indian Springs," unidentified newspaper clipping, hand-dated Dec. 1973.

19Mark L. Stacey

20Funeral Notice in Tucson Citizen, August 23, 1979.

Profession: Painter, designer, illustrator, commercial artist

Studied: Univ. Iowa (B.A.); Cumming School Art; NAD with Frances Jones, Raymond Neilson.

Exhibited: Iowa Art Salon, 1927-40 (medals, 1927-28, 1930-31); Des Moines Women's Club, 1928 (prize), 1929 (medal), 1934 (medal), 1955 (prize), 1956 (prize), 1958 (prize); NAD, 1931; NJ School Indust. Art, 1936; Michigan State College, 1936; CGA, 1934; Duluth AC, 1936; Illinois State Teachers College, 1936; Univ. North Dakota, 1936; Iowa Art Gld., 1928-55; Iowa State College, 1948-55; Sioux City AC, 1951, 1955; Des Moines AC, 1948-55; CMA, 1957 (2 prizes). Award: Composers, Authors & Artists of Am., Cleveland (prize).

Member: Des Moines Press & Radio Club; AFA; Art Dir. & Artists AA; AAPL; Iowa Art Gld.; Composers, Authors & Artists Am. (nat. pres., 1951-54; dir., 1954-57); Soc. Sanity in Art; Am. Advertisers & Illus.; F.I.A.L.

Work: Univ. Iowa; CGA; Nat. Bank, Dallas, TX; Iowa State College; Inst. Contemporary Art Lib., London, England. Des Moines Women's Club; Iowa City.; pub. bldgs., Wash., DC; design for 50th Anniversary of Mutual of Omaha.

Comments: Positions: art director, Freeman Decorating Co., 1927-55; 1st vice-pres., Freeman Contractors, 1940-; partner, Freeman-Stacey, Des Moines, Iowa, 1941-51; owner, Lynn Stacey Co., Des Moines, Iowa, 1951-. Contributed illustrations & covers to Wallace Farmer, Iowa Homestead; designs for Sheaffer Pen Co.; N.W.Bell Telephone Co.; General Motors; Ford Motor Co., and others.