Dorothy Muriel Gillespie

Dorothy Gillespie, Roanoke native and renowned artist, dies at 92 Gillespie's work prominent in Roanoke and she had longtime ties to Radford University. The Roanoke Times Dorothy Gillespie, a Roanoke native, spent much of her professional life in New York and Florida. By Melissa Powell 381-8621 Dorothy Gillespie, a Roanoke native whose artwork has adorned public spaces from south Florida to New York City and museums from Israel to Richmond, died Sunday morning of natural causes in Coral Springs, Fla., according to her family. She was 92. Nearly everyone in Roanoke has passed by Gillespie’s work. She designed and donated the 50-by-50-foot jigsaw puzzle mural on the old downtown Grand Piano building, created the five-story waterfall of sparkling aluminum confetti inside Center in the Square and gave a 24-part painting on golden aluminum panels to the Jefferson Center. The painter, sculptor, mother and grandmother grew up on Staunton Avenue and graduated from Jefferson High School before attending the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore and moving to New York City in the 1940s. In a 1998 interview with The Roanoke Times, Gillespie said her parents were steadfast in their belief that their daughter would attend Radford University and become a schoolteacher. Her parents finally budged when a preacher visited the family. Gillespie told him, as she still told all who asked, that she would be attending art school. “Well,” the preacher replied, “You have a God-given talent.” Once in New York City, Gillespie spent years making art whenever she had the chance, while raising three kids and running a restaurant and nightclub with her husband, Bernard Israel, in Greenwich Village. When the couple sold their restaurant in the 1970s, Gillespie began to focus on her art full time. Israel, Gillespie’s husband of 45 years, died in 1992, according to Gillespie’s oldest son, Gary Israel. Gerry McCarthy, a longtime friend and Roanoke resident, said the couple worked so well because of their opposite interests. “I loved their relationship because he was a successful businessman in New York City, and I think their relationship was strong because when they got home from work, they had different things to talk about,” McCarthy said. Gillespie had studios in New York City and Orlando, Fla., though she had moved out of her Orlando studio in recent years. She was still creating smaller works of art, McCarthy said, but had stopped working with metal about three years ago. “Her work ethic was incredible,” McCarthy said. “She never went on vacation; she just went somewhere else to work.” Though she had recently been living in Florida, she still maintained her studio in New York City. She was also an avid traveler, McCarthy said. Among other places, her colorful sculptures have been exhibited in Rockefeller Center in New York and Disney World in Florida. Gillespie eventually did make it back to Radford University, where she became a distinguished professor of art. “The university art museum owes its inception to Ms. Gillespie because not only did she inaugurate the campaign for a new art gallery, but she also gave advice on its design,” Steve Arbury, the chief curator of the Radford museum, wrote in an email to Gillespie’s son. Arbury said Gillespie came to campus “on a regular basis to speak to classes about art and the art world,” and let students assist her in her on-campus studio. Gary Israel still lives in New York, along with his brother, Richard Israel. Gary Israel was in Thailand on Sunday visiting his sister, Dorien Bietz. He sent out an email obituary Sunday night, which stated that Gillespie was “involved in trend-setting art movements, including ‘environments’ and ‘happenings,’ in the forefront of the women’s art movement and has made her mark on art history, helping to open the art world to women artists.” Gillespie received an honorary doctorate from Caldwell College in New York in 1976 and was named Virginia’s “Woman of the Year” by James Madison University in 1981, according to the email. “A selection of the main points from her life and career leaves unmentioned just as many diverse and far-reaching events to which she also gave her time, energy and ideas,” the email stated. In addition to her three children, Gillespie is survived by her sister, Lillanne Wilkerson, and six grandchildren. According to another email sent from Gary Israel, Gillespie had been living in the Park Summit Senior Living Facility in Coral Springs for several months. “She was very happy these last few months and was not in any pain, which was truly a blessing; she died peacefully in her sleep,” the email stated. In a 2010 interview with The Roanoke Times, an 89-year-old Gillespie said she had been battling vision problems in recent years but had no intention of slowing down. “I can still see and I can still work,” she said. “I’m working on a little piece right now. I’ve done everything in life I wanted to do. I’ve had a wonderful life.” McCarthy said despite Gillespie’s travels and experiences, she never forgot her roots. “The first thing she always asked me on the phone was ‘What is going on in Roanoke?’?” McCarthy said. “It has always been close to her heart.” McCarthy said Gillespie never stopped being an “extraordinarily real person.” “When leaving her presence and saying, ‘Goodbye,’ or, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ she would say, ‘God willing and the creek don’t rise,’?” McCarthy said. “She picked that up as a kid in Roanoke.”

Dorothy Muriel Gillespie

June 29, 1920 - September 30, 2012