Obituary of Georgie Lewis

LEWIS, Georgie Saunders Baird November 7 1919 - September 29 2012 Peacefully at the Brantford General Hospital after a brief decline, survived by her three daughters, Jennifer Gallagher (Thomas) of Williamsville New York, Gillian Lewis McDonald (John Benedict) of Waterloo Ontario and Robin Baird Lewis of Guelph Ontario, her eight grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by her husband Reginald Elliot Lewis, and her two sons, Dr. Reginald Christopher Baird Lewis late of Edmonton and Timothy Crompton Lewis, late of Brantford. Born in Galt to Robert Charles Baird and Kate Fleming Saunders, Georgie began to grow her wide range of versatile talents as she embraced the arts in all its forms from her adolescent apprenticeship in photography to her theatrical training in Toronto under the tutelage of E.G. Sterndale Bennett. In 1940, Georgie met her husband-to-be of 61 years, Reginald E. Lewis, a young RCAF air frame mechanic and spent her early married life with his family in Barrie. After the war, the couple moved to Brantford Ontario in 1949 to eventually settle into the home they made a busy centre of artistic activities for over 60 years, stimulated by Georgie's own versatile talents, her children's careers and her own indefatigable curiosity. For thirty years, Georgie was a central figure in her local and regional arts community, as a committee volunteer, a contract employee and finally as a full time Curator at Brantford's Glenhyrst Art Gallery in the 1970s until her retirement in 1984. Her versatility and expertise widened her job description so eventually she not only arranged local and international gallery shows, but also served as the original archivist, managed fund raising events and arts programmes, organised antique tours, as well as liaising with the formidable Women's Committee who ran the Glenhyrst Antique Show for decades. At her retirement in 1984, it took 4 people to replace her. It probably is in her teaching that Georgie Baird Lewis had her most inspiring influence: through the early arts therapy programmes she designed for hospital patients, her Scholarship Art Group for gifted youth, the summer arts camps at Glenhyrst, her years of Adult Art Education evening classes, her hundreds of workshops, or her network with Six Nations artists and artisans, to learn, teach and share skills in different media, occasionally serving as an impartial exhibit judge. Simultaneously, she maintained a career as a well respected and widely commissioned portraitist in oil, acrylic, pencil and pastels while she maintained her personal love of landscape subjects and uniquely reflective children studies. Regularly participating in many regional Juried Shows, her work received awards and is represented in the Glenhyrst Permanent Collection and private collections internationally. In her post retirement years Georgie's love for the unique fabric arts emerged, expanding into an enthusiastic lifelong membership with the Brant Broderers and the Brant Heritage Quilter's Guild. Right into her late 80s, she revelled in the camaraderie of their societies, as newsletter editor, tireless workshop leader or an award winner for her creations contributed to seasonal Ontario wide guild displays. An astute and loving matriarch to the end, Georgie enjoyed her retirement residence and delighted in sharing her art and chocolates. At 92, she still was making greeting cards for a fund raising sale and her neighbours right to the end. In the many artistic contributions and compassionate influences which Georgie imparted throughout her life, she will be remembered as an especially generous and miraculous gift to all who knew her. Friends will be received at Beckett-Glaves Family Funeral Centre, 88 Brant Avenue, Brantford on Wednesday, October 10th from 2 - 3 p.m. A Memorial Service will be held at 3:00 p.m. Cremation has taken place. A private family interment will be held at a later date. A tree will be planted in memory of Georgie in the Beckett-Glaves Memorial Forest.