PHOENIX, AZ — Gloria Kamen Charney died on August 18, 2019 at age 96 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Born in Queens, New York, April 9, 1923, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Gloria graduated from Pratt Institute in NYC and married Elliot Charney. They lived in the Washington DC area for 35 years. In the 1970’s they bought land in Hartland, VT, and with the help of builder Stuart Shepard, they designed and built a house using the foundation stone, beams, and siding from the old barn and retired there in 1993. Gloria was involved in the life of the Upper Valley, giving “chalk talks” at the Hartland elementary school, exhibiting her art at local galleries, and befriending many local artists and writers.
An accomplished artist and illustrator, Gloria often claimed that she pursued art because she feared her hearing loss would prevent her from teaching or other careers. Under her maiden name, Gloria Kamen, she illustrated over 40 children’s books, including the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls (1957). Her sketches of actors in rehearsal accompanied theater reviews in The Washington Post. Gloria wrote eight books for children and young adults including “Paddle,” Said the Swan, The Second-Hand Cat, and biographies of Charlie Chaplin and Rudyard Kipling. Her interest in women composers inspired her to paint a series of portraits of composers, beginning with Fanny Mendelssohn. Her work was exhibited at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts (NYC), at the Hartland Library, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital, and at galleries in VT, NH, MN, MA, AZ, and OH.
Gloria is survived by daughters Tina, Ruth, and Juliet Charney, and grandchildren Daniel and Ethan Cecchetti and Nathan and Alisa Partlan.
If you wish, you may donate in her name to the Starkey Hearing Foundation or Reach Out and Read.