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Caroline Dured Lee lost a long battle with cancer January 12, 2003, but she fought courageously until the very end. She was born November 27, 1934. She is survived by her husband of 12 years, Robert Ellis of Albuquerque; daughters, Holly Adams, Erin Adams and their husbands of Albuquerque; grandchildren, Sage Simpson, Max Corney and Kit Corney. Her surviving sisters and brother are Linda Morsmann of Santa Fe, Melissa Lawson of Fort Worth and Willis Lee of Santa Fe. Caroline was an instrumental part of the Taos art scene recently helping her husband recreate the Harwood Museum. He won the Governor's Award for contribution to the arts for their work there in Taos. They had recently relocated to Albuquerque from Taos just before her death. Born in Dallas, she grew up in Fort Worth and resided for a long time in San Antonio. Caroline Lee began her prfessional career in the arts in San Antonio, as manager of the Southwest Crafts Center in La Villita, a complex of shops reconstructed along the San Antonio River in the 1930's. Throughout the 1970's, Lee, an accomplished painter in her own right endeavored to bring the work of local fiber, ceramic and metal crafts artists to the attention of San Antonians while simultaneously developing and refining her own sense of artistic quality. In 1980 she opened Objects Gallery, which was soon to become one of the eading venues in the state of Texas for the exhibition of fine art, crafts, and folk art. By virtue of a wide ranging sequence of showings mounted at the gallery she soon developed a following in and around the state-collectors who came to see in her offerings the result of an incomparable"eye". Then in 1985, intrigued with the possibilities inherent in the fantastical constructions of Mexican folk artists, she opened the first gallery of folk art in San Antonio, a colorful yet restrained renovation of an existing storefront in the downtown area. Here, the work of now famous Mexican folk artists; Manuel Jimenez, Hector Villafana, Pedro Carlomagno and the Aguilar family were brought to the attention of the American public in an appropriate setting. Lee was of course far more than a gallery owner or even an artist and mother, she possessed an incomparable flair and passion for the indispensable accoutrements of life-high fashion, art, good food andclose friends. While in Taos, she sat on the board of the American Society of Appraisers and became a well respected appraiser of 20th Century fine art. She and her husband had both been honored for their cultural contributions to the arts in Taos. She lived every moment to the fullest and loved life, living many lives, traveling many places and partook of life with her heart and mind wide open. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the children's art program at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. A Memorial Service will be held Thursday, 3:00 p.m., at French Mortuary, Wyoming Blvd. Chapel, with a reception afterwards. Memorials in Taos and San Antonio will be scheduled in the near future. We will all miss her dearly. French Mortuary 7121 Wyoming Blvd. NE 823-9400
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