HEADSTONE with Lucille A.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Death Claims Lee LeBlanc” page one with photo (not shown)
IRON RIVER – The career of Iron County’s foremost contributor to the field of wildlife art ended last week when Lee LeBlanc, 74, died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. after a lengthy illness.
But while services for LeBlanc were held Monday, his paintings depicting the beauty of the wild will draw special reverence for time immemorial.
For LeBlanc, the field of wildlife art, created at the studio in his home at Brule Lake, was the final, most fulfilling phase of a multifaceted career.
He lived here for much of his life, but he was born in Powers on Oct. 5, 1913. When he was 7, he moved with his family to Crosby, Minn. They moved back to the Upper Peninsula in 1929, this time settling down in Iron River. Lee remained here until after graduating from Iron River High School in 1931.
It was the middle of the Deprtession, but LeBlanc set out to make his mark in the field of art. He first attended the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, holding down part-time jobs to support himself, including tending bar for his uncle. Further studies were at Jepson Art School, the Chouinard Art Institute, the La France Art Institute in Philadelphia and the Art Students League in New York City. Those lessons were augmented by private tutoring under Will Foster, and later, Nicolai Fechin.
His first artistic employment was with Western Lithography. Soon after that, he began a highly respected career in the motion picture industry as a cartoonist for Walt Disney Studios. For a short time, he was employed at Looney Tunes for Warner Bros.
In 1941, he started working as a miniature builder. His career was interrupted by the armed forces during World War II. After the war, he became a matte painter in the special effects department at 20th Century-Fox, a post he held until 1956.
He next was hired as the head of the matte painting department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and he remained there until 1962, when he and his wife Lucille agreed that he should retire from the film industry and pursue his first love and ambition: wildlife art.
Lee and Lou returned to Iron River, where Lee began a new career, taking commissions for calendar art at Brown & Bigelow and Shedd Brown, Mepps and Gibson greeting cards, promotion and sales marketing companies, along with illustrating children’s books written by his wife, the former Lucille Hayworth.
His first big success in wildlife art came when he tied for second place in the competition for the 1972-73 federal duck stamp. He won the national contest the next year.
LeBlanc paintings have appeared on the covers of Ducks Unlimited magazine, and he was commissioned in 1974 for several bird paintings for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Awards started coming: the 1975 Golden Mallard Award from the Arkansas Wildlife Federation; artist of the year in 1976 for the Tennessee Ducks Unlimited; second place in the 1977 Michigan duck stamp contest; the Michigan Ducks Unlimited Waterfowl Artist Award in 1978; artist of the year by National Ducks Unlimited in 1980, the same year the Michigan house and senate passed a concurrent resolution of tribute to LeBlanc.
A LeBlanc picture of a bald eagle graced the cover of the Bicentennial issue of Michigan Out-Of-Doors magazine, and he was also commissioned to do the magazine’s January 1977 cover. In 1978 and 1979, he was a finalist in the Michigan Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp competition—in ’79 he was also a finalist for the Michigan Trout Stamp competition.
Several “first of state” waterfowl stamps, in Arkansas and South Carolina, featured LeBlanc artwork. He painted the Deer Unlimited print in 1981 and the print and stamp for the Wild Turkey Federation in 1982.
The quality never was less than the very best. When the Great Lakes Wildlife Art Festival was held in Milwaukee in 1986, LeBlanc was the honored artist. Last year, he was a national finalist in the “Art for the Parks” national contest.
On July 30, this Saturday, a wildlife preserve near Stuttgart, Ark. will be named after LeBlanc—posthumously. It will not be the first marsh in LeBlanc’s honor: several years ago, a marsh in western Manitoba was named in his honor by Ducks Unlimited.
LeBlanc was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
When the local Ducks Unlimited chapter was getting started in 1980, LeBlanc donated an original oil painting of bluebills that was raffled off to help the chapter get some firm financial footing.
In and around the Iron River area, LeBlanc’s wildlife paintings were a familiar sight to anyone visiting Miners State Bank, where they usually were prominently displayed in the lobby. He donated his art to assist many fund-raising efforts in the community.
One, in particular, was a painting of loons near a lake, one settling on a nest and the other “dancing” on the water’s surface. Prints of that one were sold to raise money for construction of the Cultural Center at the Iron County Historical Museum in Caspian.
The Cultural Center features a permanent display of LeBlanc artwork.
His obituary appears on page 5 of this week’s issue.
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Obituaries: Lee LeBlanc”
IRON RIVER –Lee LeBlanc, 74, of 3819 W. Brule Lake Rd., died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. following a lengthy illness.
He was born Oct. 5, 1913 in Powers. When he was 2, the LeBlanc family moved to Crosby, Minn., and in 1929 he and his family moved to Iron River, where he graduated from Iron River High School in 1931. He was a veteran of World War II and was married to the former Lucille Hayworth. In 1962 he retired from the movie industry in California and the couple moved to Iron River to make their home at Brule Lake. Information on his career appears elsewhere in this week’s Reporter. He was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, the Audubon Society, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
He is survived by his wife Lucille of Brule Lake; two daughters, Deirdre LeBlanc of Van Nuys, Calif. and Patricia Wolfe of Minocqua, Wis.; a brother Edward LeBlanc of Marshall, Minn.; a sister Cecilia Rosera of Caspian; one granddaughter; and two great-grandsons.
Visitation was held July 24 at the Jacobs Funeral Home in Iron River, where the Masonic Lodge conducted Masonic services.
Services were held July 25 at the funeral home and at St. Agnes Catholic Church, with the Rev. Aloysius Hasenberg, pastor, officiating.
Pallbearers were Edward Kreski, Fred Angeli, Vincent Petrucelli, Tim Wolfe, John Novak and Edmond Goriesky. Soloist Richard Briggs was accompanied by Luella Ambach at the organ in “On Eagle’s Wings” and “How Great Thou Art.”
Burial was at Resthaven Cemetery in Iron River.
RUSSELL FINK GALLERY website (http://store.russellfinkgallery.com/leblanclee.html) (summary)
Wildlife artist Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan in the wooded Upper Peninsula. Art was his major interest in life since early childhood, and his parents Vincent and Alice always encouraged his desire to draw.
In 1931 after graduating from Iron River (Michigan) High School, he went to Los Angeles and spent a year studying art at Frank Wiggins Trade School. He left Los Angeles and went to New York hoping to find work as a commercial artist but after 3 weeks decided that New York wasn't for him. He then went to Philadelphia where he tended bar for three years to pay for more art lessons at LaFrance Art Institute. He moved back to New York again and worked as as a staff illustrator for the New York journal while also attending the Art Students League.
In 1937 he returned to Los Angeles where he worked at Western Lithography as a commercial artist. Six months later he joined Walt Disney's staff at a salary of $10 per week, but soon after he worked for better wages at the cartoon firm of Merry Melodies and Looney Tunes, illustrating such characters as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.
In 1955 his wife Helene died from a long-term illness, leaving him with a fourteen year old daughter, Dierdre. It was difficult for him to be both mother and father and work at the demanding schedule of the motion picture industry. As a break, he would at times go to the Michigan wilderness he loved so much especially for fishing. On one of these trips he met Lucille Hayworth and in 1958 they were married.
Lee was the administrator of the special effects photographic department for MGM Studios for six years, but in 1962, he moved back to Iron River where he and Lucille built a home on the shores of Brule Lake. Their daughter Patricia was born in the Iron River area. After twenty-five years in the motion picture industry with a high-paying job, this was a big risk, but his wife supported him and his wages eventually equalled what he had left.
Lee was a member of Ducks Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, The Audubon Society, National Geographic Society, the Ornithologist's Union, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
ABOUT.COM: ART HISTORY "Lee LeBlanc As I Knew Him" written by (daughter) Deirdre Anne LeBlanc (summary)
George Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan which was a small logging town in the Upper Peninsula. His parents were Vincent Ferrier LeBlanc and Alice Charbonneau LeBlanc, and he had an older sister, Cecile.
The family moved to Crosby, Minnesota to join Vincent's brother and his family, but returned to Michigan some years later and settled in Iron River. Vincent worked as the butcher for Angeli's Market for many years.
From early childhood Lee sketched and painted. During the Great Depression while he was in high school, he worked as a cook at the lumber camps around Iron River during the summer months.
Everyone admired Lee's artistic talent, but most people thought he should plan to work locally as a logger or get a job at the iron mines, but he longed to see life outside Michigan. He was a young Catholic man. In 1931 he and a friend Joe Tipton hopped on freight cars, traveling back and forth across the American plains, taking odd jobs to earn money for food. They stood in soup lines in the larger cities when no work could be found. He lived like the characters in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" which was one of his favorite novels.
Lee first studied art at the Jack Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, but he could find no work as an illustrator. He and his friend Joe went to New York where he thought he could work as a commercial artist. After three weeks he decided that New York wasn't for him, and he headed for Philadelphia. To earn money, he tended bar at night, and studied at La France Art Institute during the day. Next he took a job waiting tables in an Italian restaurant, and eventually married Antoinette, the daughter of the owners. A son Francis "Frankie" Caron LeBlanc was born, and although his in-laws wanted to groom him to take over the restaurant, in 1937 Lee left for Los Angeles, telling Antoinette that he would send for her and their son when he was settled into a good job.
Riding the rails through Texas, Lee was arrested by the police because he fit the description of Clyde Barrow, who was known to be in the area after having just robbed a bank in a nearby town. He was released in a few hours when they realized he wasn't their man.
Outside Los Angeles, he and Joe Tipton took a job at the Governor Mine in Acton CA mining gold for the son of California's first governor Peter H. Burnett, where they worked long days under the desert sun to make enough money for the rest of the trip to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Lee soon landed a job with Western Lithography as a commercial artist while living with his father's sister Min and her husband in Arcadia, a suburb of Los Angeles. He also tended bar at his uncle's establishment The Tack Room, which was near Santa Anita Racetrack.
In 1940 he met Helene Costello, the sister of Dolores Costello who had been married to John Barrymore. Both sisters were actresses and she helped him get his first job with Walt Disney, where he made $10 a week. After that he held slightly higher paying jobs at Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. During this time, he divorced Antoinette and married Helene. He was able to get into the Special Effects Department at Twentieth-Century Fox where his first job was building miniatures. When he was younger his true ambition had been to be sculptor, but since this was not feasible to make a living he used his talent for sketching and painting and became an apprentice painter.
About this time he dropped the name George and began signing his name Lee LeBlanc. Their daughter Deirdre was born on February 18 1941.
In World War II he joined the Merchant Marines and his wife Helene was in a sanitarium for tuberculosis. By the time the war ended they decided to divorce, and custody of Deirdre was given to Lee, who moved his parents to West Los Angeles to care for her.
During 1948-49 Lee was commissioned to draw and illuminate several maps for Admiral Perry. He then married a Russian, Rosalia Platonova. Lee LeBlanc's parents returned to Iron River, and daughter Deirdre was put in convent school. Rosalia could speak little English but wanted her citizenship. Over the next years they went through a long-fought divorce, and Lee was now supporting two former wives. Soon he began a friendship with Gwendolyn Reed, a woman who worked in the Fox Publicity Department and Lee moved in with Gwen and her mother in West Los Angeles.
Finally, because of Rosalia calling the judge a name in court one day, Dad's support for her was cut to one dollar a year. However, if Rosalia filed for hardship, Lee would need to pay more support. He could own nothing in his own name, or she would claim half of it, so he bought a car in Gwen's name.
Lee's dream was to be able to design and build his own home some day. In his spare time he would draw floor plans, and then build magnificent model homes out of balsa wood. The roofs lifted off so you could see inside, with furnishings, lighting and landscaping included. These generated such an interest at the studio that producers, directors, and department heads ordered them for their young daughters as dollhouses.
In 1954 Lee was sent to South Africa to get film research for the movie "Untamed", starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayworth, which was a somewhat dangerous trip as it was during the Mau Mau uprising. The summer of 1955 he decided to go to Iron River for a vacation. His daughter met cousins she didn't even know existed, and went out at night with flashlights collecting nightcrawlers for fishing the next day. They met Lucille Anderson and her husband, a couple who offered guided fishing and hunting trips to folks from big cities. Lucille also made money doing taxidermy.
In 1955 Lee became head of Matte Painting at MGM, and during the summer of 1956 he made another trip to Michigan to look for property.
In January of 1957 his former wife Helene died and he left Gwendolyn, getting an apartment in Playa del Rey near the Pacific Ocean. During the next two years he painted anything to do with outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, boating, and submitted them to various sporting magazines, like Field and Stream, to see if he could get some work illustrating for them.
That summer Lee made another trip to Michigan where Lucille Anderson helped Dad find a lovely piece of property on Brule Lake, just outside Iron River, Michigan. During the previous year's trip, they had fallen in love. Shortly thereafter, Lou began divorce proceedings. He made plans to leave the studios, leave California where he couldn't get a divorce from his Russian former wife, marry Lou, return to Iron River, build his own home, and paint for himself.
In 1962 Lee quit MGM, sold the house he and Lucille had bought and remodeled, and went to Reno to set up residence so he could divorce Rosalia. Then he married Lucille and in Iron River the couple moved in with his parents until they completed the building of their house. They had a new baby daughter Patricia "Tricia", and there was no easy way to make a decent living, but Lucille encouraged him.
Lee began to paint wildlife scenes which featured animals and birds, especially ducks, and he took courses in ornithology at Cornell. He was also illustrating children's books for Oddo, a small publishing company. Lucille even wrote one of the books that he illustrated.
Finally, with a varied collection of his latest wildlife works in hand, he drove to a nearby hunt club, and asked the owner if he might like to hang the paintings, and if any sold, the owner could take a commission. A man who bought two of Lee's paintings at the hunt club encouraged the couple to open their own gallery and sold them some property in Minocqua, Wisconsin on the Boardwalk with a view of the lake. Soon Lee won the coveted 1973-74 Federal Duck Stamp, after tying for second place the year before. He also won First of State Arkansas, First of State South Carolina, a Turkey Stamp for Texas, Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year, and numerous other honors and awards. In Arkansas he was honored by Nature Conservancy with a memorial bronze plaque for the work he did to save the wetlands there.
His last print was for the New York Conservation Commemorative stamp, after which he suffered a stroke. Lee was dying of onset leukemia, which was caused from over twenty years of working in his studio with an open can of paint thinner. He had begun using thinner when he decided it was too expensive to buy and ship in gallon cans of rectified turpentine from Detroit or Chicago. Many trips to the Marshfield, Wisconsin Clinic occured. He died in Iron River in 1988.
During his life he painted for David Rockefeller and Senator Strom Thurman. He was among the artists invited to the White House to commemorate 50 years of the Federal Duck Stamp while Ronald Reagan was President.
After his death, Iron River residents got the idea to honor their native son even further by building the Lee LeBlanc Wildlife Art Gallery as part of the Iron County Museum in Caspian, Michigan.
Members of the building committee were Ellie Coles, a friend and neighbor on Brule Lake, Harold and Marcia Bernhardt, Andy Busakowski, Jim and Delores Sapletal, Andy Davis, and Anna Mae Gugliotto, then President of the Miners State Bank.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter March 6 1991 "LeBlanc Framing Project Starts" with photo
IRON RIVER-When it opens later this year, the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery will be the only art gallery in the U.S. dedicated to one artist.
Last week, a drive started to frame over 100 pieces of art from the late wildlife artist, whose most productive years were spent at his studio on Brule Lake.
The new gallery is located on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Construction, which started last fall, is well along. Part of the ceiling is in, and painting of the walls is ready to start. Workers will put in the carpet soon, and a cultured stone exterior will be done in the spring.
The grand opening of the gallery is planned for Saturday, June 29.
So far, the Friends of LeBlanc Committee has raised over $138,000 to pay for the gallery's construction. Attention is now turning to the reason for the gallery-LeBlanc's work, which includes many wildlife works, as well as calendar work for Brown & Bigelow and mats from his work at MGM studios in Hollywood.
Lucille LeBlanc, Lee's widow, has donated 85 prints and 20 originals to the gallery, and plans call for museum quality framing for all of them, with acid-free mats and backing and ultraviolet glass. The works will be permanently attached to the gallery's walls.
Organizers are going the extra mile for the gallery. "It's a treasure to be preserved for generations to come," explained Anna Mae Gugliotto, secretary of the LeBlanc Committee.
The appeal has been extended with letters to area businesses and professionals, asking them to help with the cost. A small frame will cost $75; a regular frame is $100; and a large frame is $150.
A brass plate will be permanently attached to the wall beneath each picture, identifying the title of the picture and the name of the person or business who sponsored the framing.
Beyond the pictures, the gallery will also include a recreation of LeBlanc's gallery on Brule Lake.
On an easel will be LeBlanc's final work-a painting of four wolves walking in a wooded winter scene. His wife said the painting was still many hours away from being finished.
The many awards and photos with dignitaries that LeBlanc received over the years will also be displayed in the new gallery.
Lucille LeBlanc noted that over the years, Lee kept an inventory of his work on slides-when he finished a painting, he photographed it before shipping.
She said that she has been cutting mats for most of the winter, "So we're about ready to start." Andy Busakowski of Central Arts & Gifts will do much of the framing.
The committee also hopes to aid with the landscaping and shrubbery near the new gallery.
PHOTO CAPTION: Lucille LeBlanc shows an unfinished painting of four wolves, created by her late husband Lee LeBlanc, to Ed Kreski of Miners State Bank. The painting will be displayed at the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery, which will open this June on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Kreski made the first donation for the framing project, which started recently.
OBITUARY of Lucille LeBlanc 2004 says she married Lee LeBlanc in June of 1962 after meeting her husband in Michigan. They lived for a while in California, then moved to Michigan and lived at Brule Lake while they owned and operated an art gallery in Minocqua WI. He died July 21 1988.
INFORMATION FROM RESEARCHER Miah Tappa for 3rd Grade Museum project in 2017 says Lee LeBlanc was a motion picture & wildlife artist.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Death Claims Lee LeBlanc” page one with photo (not shown)
IRON RIVER – The career of Iron County’s foremost contributor to the field of wildlife art ended last week when Lee LeBlanc, 74, died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. after a lengthy illness.
But while services for LeBlanc were held Monday, his paintings depicting the beauty of the wild will draw special reverence for time immemorial.
For LeBlanc, the field of wildlife art, created at the studio in his home at Brule Lake, was the final, most fulfilling phase of a multifaceted career.
He lived here for much of his life, but he was born in Powers on Oct. 5, 1913. When he was 7, he moved with his family to Crosby, Minn. They moved back to the Upper Peninsula in 1929, this time settling down in Iron River. Lee remained here until after graduating from Iron River High School in 1931.
It was the middle of the Deprtession, but LeBlanc set out to make his mark in the field of art. He first attended the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, holding down part-time jobs to support himself, including tending bar for his uncle. Further studies were at Jepson Art School, the Chouinard Art Institute, the La France Art Institute in Philadelphia and the Art Students League in New York City. Those lessons were augmented by private tutoring under Will Foster, and later, Nicolai Fechin.
His first artistic employment was with Western Lithography. Soon after that, he began a highly respected career in the motion picture industry as a cartoonist for Walt Disney Studios. For a short time, he was employed at Looney Tunes for Warner Bros.
In 1941, he started working as a miniature builder. His career was interrupted by the armed forces during World War II. After the war, he became a matte painter in the special effects department at 20th Century-Fox, a post he held until 1956.
He next was hired as the head of the matte painting department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and he remained there until 1962, when he and his wife Lucille agreed that he should retire from the film industry and pursue his first love and ambition: wildlife art.
Lee and Lou returned to Iron River, where Lee began a new career, taking commissions for calendar art at Brown & Bigelow and Shedd Brown, Mepps and Gibson greeting cards, promotion and sales marketing companies, along with illustrating children’s books written by his wife, the former Lucille Hayworth.
His first big success in wildlife art came when he tied for second place in the competition for the 1972-73 federal duck stamp. He won the national contest the next year.
LeBlanc paintings have appeared on the covers of Ducks Unlimited magazine, and he was commissioned in 1974 for several bird paintings for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Awards started coming: the 1975 Golden Mallard Award from the Arkansas Wildlife Federation; artist of the year in 1976 for the Tennessee Ducks Unlimited; second place in the 1977 Michigan duck stamp contest; the Michigan Ducks Unlimited Waterfowl Artist Award in 1978; artist of the year by National Ducks Unlimited in 1980, the same year the Michigan house and senate passed a concurrent resolution of tribute to LeBlanc.
A LeBlanc picture of a bald eagle graced the cover of the Bicentennial issue of Michigan Out-Of-Doors magazine, and he was also commissioned to do the magazine’s January 1977 cover. In 1978 and 1979, he was a finalist in the Michigan Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp competition—in ’79 he was also a finalist for the Michigan Trout Stamp competition.
Several “first of state” waterfowl stamps, in Arkansas and South Carolina, featured LeBlanc artwork. He painted the Deer Unlimited print in 1981 and the print and stamp for the Wild Turkey Federation in 1982.
The quality never was less than the very best. When the Great Lakes Wildlife Art Festival was held in Milwaukee in 1986, LeBlanc was the honored artist. Last year, he was a national finalist in the “Art for the Parks” national contest.
On July 30, this Saturday, a wildlife preserve near Stuttgart, Ark. will be named after LeBlanc—posthumously. It will not be the first marsh in LeBlanc’s honor: several years ago, a marsh in western Manitoba was named in his honor by Ducks Unlimited.
LeBlanc was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
When the local Ducks Unlimited chapter was getting started in 1980, LeBlanc donated an original oil painting of bluebills that was raffled off to help the chapter get some firm financial footing.
In and around the Iron River area, LeBlanc’s wildlife paintings were a familiar sight to anyone visiting Miners State Bank, where they usually were prominently displayed in the lobby. He donated his art to assist many fund-raising efforts in the community.
One, in particular, was a painting of loons near a lake, one settling on a nest and the other “dancing” on the water’s surface. Prints of that one were sold to raise money for construction of the Cultural Center at the Iron County Historical Museum in Caspian.
The Cultural Center features a permanent display of LeBlanc artwork.
His obituary appears on page 5 of this week’s issue.
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Obituaries: Lee LeBlanc”
IRON RIVER –Lee LeBlanc, 74, of 3819 W. Brule Lake Rd., died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. following a lengthy illness.
He was born Oct. 5, 1913 in Powers. When he was 2, the LeBlanc family moved to Crosby, Minn., and in 1929 he and his family moved to Iron River, where he graduated from Iron River High School in 1931. He was a veteran of World War II and was married to the former Lucille Hayworth. In 1962 he retired from the movie industry in California and the couple moved to Iron River to make their home at Brule Lake. Information on his career appears elsewhere in this week’s Reporter. He was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, the Audubon Society, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
He is survived by his wife Lucille of Brule Lake; two daughters, Deirdre LeBlanc of Van Nuys, Calif. and Patricia Wolfe of Minocqua, Wis.; a brother Edward LeBlanc of Marshall, Minn.; a sister Cecilia Rosera of Caspian; one granddaughter; and two great-grandsons.
Visitation was held July 24 at the Jacobs Funeral Home in Iron River, where the Masonic Lodge conducted Masonic services.
Services were held July 25 at the funeral home and at St. Agnes Catholic Church, with the Rev. Aloysius Hasenberg, pastor, officiating.
Pallbearers were Edward Kreski, Fred Angeli, Vincent Petrucelli, Tim Wolfe, John Novak and Edmond Goriesky. Soloist Richard Briggs was accompanied by Luella Ambach at the organ in “On Eagle’s Wings” and “How Great Thou Art.”
Burial was at Resthaven Cemetery in Iron River.
RUSSELL FINK GALLERY website (http://store.russellfinkgallery.com/leblanclee.html) (summary)
Wildlife artist Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan in the wooded Upper Peninsula. Art was his major interest in life since early childhood, and his parents Vincent and Alice always encouraged his desire to draw.
In 1931 after graduating from Iron River (Michigan) High School, he went to Los Angeles and spent a year studying art at Frank Wiggins Trade School. He left Los Angeles and went to New York hoping to find work as a commercial artist but after 3 weeks decided that New York wasn't for him. He then went to Philadelphia where he tended bar for three years to pay for more art lessons at LaFrance Art Institute. He moved back to New York again and worked as as a staff illustrator for the New York journal while also attending the Art Students League.
In 1937 he returned to Los Angeles where he worked at Western Lithography as a commercial artist. Six months later he joined Walt Disney's staff at a salary of $10 per week, but soon after he worked for better wages at the cartoon firm of Merry Melodies and Looney Tunes, illustrating such characters as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.
In 1955 his wife Helene died from a long-term illness, leaving him with a fourteen year old daughter, Dierdre. It was difficult for him to be both mother and father and work at the demanding schedule of the motion picture industry. As a break, he would at times go to the Michigan wilderness he loved so much especially for fishing. On one of these trips he met Lucille Hayworth and in 1958 they were married.
Lee was the administrator of the special effects photographic department for MGM Studios for six years, but in 1962, he moved back to Iron River where he and Lucille built a home on the shores of Brule Lake. Their daughter Patricia was born in the Iron River area. After twenty-five years in the motion picture industry with a high-paying job, this was a big risk, but his wife supported him and his wages eventually equalled what he had left.
Lee was a member of Ducks Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, The Audubon Society, National Geographic Society, the Ornithologist's Union, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
ABOUT.COM: ART HISTORY "Lee LeBlanc As I Knew Him" written by (daughter) Deirdre Anne LeBlanc (summary)
George Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan which was a small logging town in the Upper Peninsula. His parents were Vincent Ferrier LeBlanc and Alice Charbonneau LeBlanc, and he had an older sister, Cecile.
The family moved to Crosby, Minnesota to join Vincent's brother and his family, but returned to Michigan some years later and settled in Iron River. Vincent worked as the butcher for Angeli's Market for many years.
From early childhood Lee sketched and painted. During the Great Depression while he was in high school, he worked as a cook at the lumber camps around Iron River during the summer months.
Everyone admired Lee's artistic talent, but most people thought he should plan to work locally as a logger or get a job at the iron mines, but he longed to see life outside Michigan. He was a young Catholic man. In 1931 he and a friend Joe Tipton hopped on freight cars, traveling back and forth across the American plains, taking odd jobs to earn money for food. They stood in soup lines in the larger cities when no work could be found. He lived like the characters in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" which was one of his favorite novels.
Lee first studied art at the Jack Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, but he could find no work as an illustrator. He and his friend Joe went to New York where he thought he could work as a commercial artist. After three weeks he decided that New York wasn't for him, and he headed for Philadelphia. To earn money, he tended bar at night, and studied at La France Art Institute during the day. Next he took a job waiting tables in an Italian restaurant, and eventually married Antoinette, the daughter of the owners. A son Francis "Frankie" Caron LeBlanc was born, and although his in-laws wanted to groom him to take over the restaurant, in 1937 Lee left for Los Angeles, telling Antoinette that he would send for her and their son when he was settled into a good job.
Riding the rails through Texas, Lee was arrested by the police because he fit the description of Clyde Barrow, who was known to be in the area after having just robbed a bank in a nearby town. He was released in a few hours when they realized he wasn't their man.
Outside Los Angeles, he and Joe Tipton took a job at the Governor Mine in Acton CA mining gold for the son of California's first governor Peter H. Burnett, where they worked long days under the desert sun to make enough money for the rest of the trip to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Lee soon landed a job with Western Lithography as a commercial artist while living with his father's sister Min and her husband in Arcadia, a suburb of Los Angeles. He also tended bar at his uncle's establishment The Tack Room, which was near Santa Anita Racetrack.
In 1940 he met Helene Costello, the sister of Dolores Costello who had been married to John Barrymore. Both sisters were actresses and she helped him get his first job with Walt Disney, where he made $10 a week. After that he held slightly higher paying jobs at Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. During this time, he divorced Antoinette and married Helene. He was able to get into the Special Effects Department at Twentieth-Century Fox where his first job was building miniatures. When he was younger his true ambition had been to be sculptor, but since this was not feasible to make a living he used his talent for sketching and painting and became an apprentice painter.
About this time he dropped the name George and began signing his name Lee LeBlanc. Their daughter Deirdre was born on February 18 1941.
In World War II he joined the Merchant Marines and his wife Helene was in a sanitarium for tuberculosis. By the time the war ended they decided to divorce, and custody of Deirdre was given to Lee, who moved his parents to West Los Angeles to care for her.
During 1948-49 Lee was commissioned to draw and illuminate several maps for Admiral Perry. He then married a Russian, Rosalia Platonova. Lee LeBlanc's parents returned to Iron River, and daughter Deirdre was put in convent school. Rosalia could speak little English but wanted her citizenship. Over the next years they went through a long-fought divorce, and Lee was now supporting two former wives. Soon he began a friendship with Gwendolyn Reed, a woman who worked in the Fox Publicity Department and Lee moved in with Gwen and her mother in West Los Angeles.
Finally, because of Rosalia calling the judge a name in court one day, Dad's support for her was cut to one dollar a year. However, if Rosalia filed for hardship, Lee would need to pay more support. He could own nothing in his own name, or she would claim half of it, so he bought a car in Gwen's name.
Lee's dream was to be able to design and build his own home some day. In his spare time he would draw floor plans, and then build magnificent model homes out of balsa wood. The roofs lifted off so you could see inside, with furnishings, lighting and landscaping included. These generated such an interest at the studio that producers, directors, and department heads ordered them for their young daughters as dollhouses.
In 1954 Lee was sent to South Africa to get film research for the movie "Untamed", starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayworth, which was a somewhat dangerous trip as it was during the Mau Mau uprising. The summer of 1955 he decided to go to Iron River for a vacation. His daughter met cousins she didn't even know existed, and went out at night with flashlights collecting nightcrawlers for fishing the next day. They met Lucille Anderson and her husband, a couple who offered guided fishing and hunting trips to folks from big cities. Lucille also made money doing taxidermy.
In 1955 Lee became head of Matte Painting at MGM, and during the summer of 1956 he made another trip to Michigan to look for property.
In January of 1957 his former wife Helene died and he left Gwendolyn, getting an apartment in Playa del Rey near the Pacific Ocean. During the next two years he painted anything to do with outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, boating, and submitted them to various sporting magazines, like Field and Stream, to see if he could get some work illustrating for them.
That summer Lee made another trip to Michigan where Lucille Anderson helped Dad find a lovely piece of property on Brule Lake, just outside Iron River, Michigan. During the previous year's trip, they had fallen in love. Shortly thereafter, Lou began divorce proceedings. He made plans to leave the studios, leave California where he couldn't get a divorce from his Russian former wife, marry Lou, return to Iron River, build his own home, and paint for himself.
In 1962 Lee quit MGM, sold the house he and Lucille had bought and remodeled, and went to Reno to set up residence so he could divorce Rosalia. Then he married Lucille and in Iron River the couple moved in with his parents until they completed the building of their house. They had a new baby daughter Patricia "Tricia", and there was no easy way to make a decent living, but Lucille encouraged him.
Lee began to paint wildlife scenes which featured animals and birds, especially ducks, and he took courses in ornithology at Cornell. He was also illustrating children's books for Oddo, a small publishing company. Lucille even wrote one of the books that he illustrated.
Finally, with a varied collection of his latest wildlife works in hand, he drove to a nearby hunt club, and asked the owner if he might like to hang the paintings, and if any sold, the owner could take a commission. A man who bought two of Lee's paintings at the hunt club encouraged the couple to open their own gallery and sold them some property in Minocqua, Wisconsin on the Boardwalk with a view of the lake. Soon Lee won the coveted 1973-74 Federal Duck Stamp, after tying for second place the year before. He also won First of State Arkansas, First of State South Carolina, a Turkey Stamp for Texas, Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year, and numerous other honors and awards. In Arkansas he was honored by Nature Conservancy with a memorial bronze plaque for the work he did to save the wetlands there.
His last print was for the New York Conservation Commemorative stamp, after which he suffered a stroke. Lee was dying of onset leukemia, which was caused from over twenty years of working in his studio with an open can of paint thinner. He had begun using thinner when he decided it was too expensive to buy and ship in gallon cans of rectified turpentine from Detroit or Chicago. Many trips to the Marshfield, Wisconsin Clinic occured. He died in Iron River in 1988.
During his life he painted for David Rockefeller and Senator Strom Thurman. He was among the artists invited to the White House to commemorate 50 years of the Federal Duck Stamp while Ronald Reagan was President.
After his death, Iron River residents got the idea to honor their native son even further by building the Lee LeBlanc Wildlife Art Gallery as part of the Iron County Museum in Caspian, Michigan.
Members of the building committee were Ellie Coles, a friend and neighbor on Brule Lake, Harold and Marcia Bernhardt, Andy Busakowski, Jim and Delores Sapletal, Andy Davis, and Anna Mae Gugliotto, then President of the Miners State Bank.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter March 6 1991 "LeBlanc Framing Project Starts" with photo
IRON RIVER-When it opens later this year, the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery will be the only art gallery in the U.S. dedicated to one artist.
Last week, a drive started to frame over 100 pieces of art from the late wildlife artist, whose most productive years were spent at his studio on Brule Lake.
The new gallery is located on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Construction, which started last fall, is well along. Part of the ceiling is in, and painting of the walls is ready to start. Workers will put in the carpet soon, and a cultured stone exterior will be done in the spring.
The grand opening of the gallery is planned for Saturday, June 29.
So far, the Friends of LeBlanc Committee has raised over $138,000 to pay for the gallery's construction. Attention is now turning to the reason for the gallery-LeBlanc's work, which includes many wildlife works, as well as calendar work for Brown & Bigelow and mats from his work at MGM studios in Hollywood.
Lucille LeBlanc, Lee's widow, has donated 85 prints and 20 originals to the gallery, and plans call for museum quality framing for all of them, with acid-free mats and backing and ultraviolet glass. The works will be permanently attached to the gallery's walls.
Organizers are going the extra mile for the gallery. "It's a treasure to be preserved for generations to come," explained Anna Mae Gugliotto, secretary of the LeBlanc Committee.
The appeal has been extended with letters to area businesses and professionals, asking them to help with the cost. A small frame will cost $75; a regular frame is $100; and a large frame is $150.
A brass plate will be permanently attached to the wall beneath each picture, identifying the title of the picture and the name of the person or business who sponsored the framing.
Beyond the pictures, the gallery will also include a recreation of LeBlanc's gallery on Brule Lake.
On an easel will be LeBlanc's final work-a painting of four wolves walking in a wooded winter scene. His wife said the painting was still many hours away from being finished.
The many awards and photos with dignitaries that LeBlanc received over the years will also be displayed in the new gallery.
Lucille LeBlanc noted that over the years, Lee kept an inventory of his work on slides-when he finished a painting, he photographed it before shipping.
She said that she has been cutting mats for most of the winter, "So we're about ready to start." Andy Busakowski of Central Arts & Gifts will do much of the framing.
The committee also hopes to aid with the landscaping and shrubbery near the new gallery.
PHOTO CAPTION: Lucille LeBlanc shows an unfinished painting of four wolves, created by her late husband Lee LeBlanc, to Ed Kreski of Miners State Bank. The painting will be displayed at the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery, which will open this June on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Kreski made the first donation for the framing project, which started recently.
OBITUARY of Lucille LeBlanc 2004 says she married Lee LeBlanc in June of 1962 after meeting her husband in Michigan. They lived for a while in California, then moved to Michigan and lived at Brule Lake while they owned and operated an art gallery in Minocqua WI. He died July 21 1988.
INFORMATION FROM RESEARCHER Miah Tappa for 3rd Grade Museum project in 2017 says Lee LeBlanc was a motion picture & wildlife artist.
HEADSTONE with Lucille A.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Death Claims Lee LeBlanc” page one with photo (not shown)
IRON RIVER – The career of Iron County’s foremost contributor to the field of wildlife art ended last week when Lee LeBlanc, 74, died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. after a lengthy illness.
But while services for LeBlanc were held Monday, his paintings depicting the beauty of the wild will draw special reverence for time immemorial.
For LeBlanc, the field of wildlife art, created at the studio in his home at Brule Lake, was the final, most fulfilling phase of a multifaceted career.
He lived here for much of his life, but he was born in Powers on Oct. 5, 1913. When he was 7, he moved with his family to Crosby, Minn. They moved back to the Upper Peninsula in 1929, this time settling down in Iron River. Lee remained here until after graduating from Iron River High School in 1931.
It was the middle of the Deprtession, but LeBlanc set out to make his mark in the field of art. He first attended the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, holding down part-time jobs to support himself, including tending bar for his uncle. Further studies were at Jepson Art School, the Chouinard Art Institute, the La France Art Institute in Philadelphia and the Art Students League in New York City. Those lessons were augmented by private tutoring under Will Foster, and later, Nicolai Fechin.
His first artistic employment was with Western Lithography. Soon after that, he began a highly respected career in the motion picture industry as a cartoonist for Walt Disney Studios. For a short time, he was employed at Looney Tunes for Warner Bros.
In 1941, he started working as a miniature builder. His career was interrupted by the armed forces during World War II. After the war, he became a matte painter in the special effects department at 20th Century-Fox, a post he held until 1956.
He next was hired as the head of the matte painting department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and he remained there until 1962, when he and his wife Lucille agreed that he should retire from the film industry and pursue his first love and ambition: wildlife art.
Lee and Lou returned to Iron River, where Lee began a new career, taking commissions for calendar art at Brown & Bigelow and Shedd Brown, Mepps and Gibson greeting cards, promotion and sales marketing companies, along with illustrating children’s books written by his wife, the former Lucille Hayworth.
His first big success in wildlife art came when he tied for second place in the competition for the 1972-73 federal duck stamp. He won the national contest the next year.
LeBlanc paintings have appeared on the covers of Ducks Unlimited magazine, and he was commissioned in 1974 for several bird paintings for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Awards started coming: the 1975 Golden Mallard Award from the Arkansas Wildlife Federation; artist of the year in 1976 for the Tennessee Ducks Unlimited; second place in the 1977 Michigan duck stamp contest; the Michigan Ducks Unlimited Waterfowl Artist Award in 1978; artist of the year by National Ducks Unlimited in 1980, the same year the Michigan house and senate passed a concurrent resolution of tribute to LeBlanc.
A LeBlanc picture of a bald eagle graced the cover of the Bicentennial issue of Michigan Out-Of-Doors magazine, and he was also commissioned to do the magazine’s January 1977 cover. In 1978 and 1979, he was a finalist in the Michigan Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp competition—in ’79 he was also a finalist for the Michigan Trout Stamp competition.
Several “first of state” waterfowl stamps, in Arkansas and South Carolina, featured LeBlanc artwork. He painted the Deer Unlimited print in 1981 and the print and stamp for the Wild Turkey Federation in 1982.
The quality never was less than the very best. When the Great Lakes Wildlife Art Festival was held in Milwaukee in 1986, LeBlanc was the honored artist. Last year, he was a national finalist in the “Art for the Parks” national contest.
On July 30, this Saturday, a wildlife preserve near Stuttgart, Ark. will be named after LeBlanc—posthumously. It will not be the first marsh in LeBlanc’s honor: several years ago, a marsh in western Manitoba was named in his honor by Ducks Unlimited.
LeBlanc was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
When the local Ducks Unlimited chapter was getting started in 1980, LeBlanc donated an original oil painting of bluebills that was raffled off to help the chapter get some firm financial footing.
In and around the Iron River area, LeBlanc’s wildlife paintings were a familiar sight to anyone visiting Miners State Bank, where they usually were prominently displayed in the lobby. He donated his art to assist many fund-raising efforts in the community.
One, in particular, was a painting of loons near a lake, one settling on a nest and the other “dancing” on the water’s surface. Prints of that one were sold to raise money for construction of the Cultural Center at the Iron County Historical Museum in Caspian.
The Cultural Center features a permanent display of LeBlanc artwork.
His obituary appears on page 5 of this week’s issue.
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Obituaries: Lee LeBlanc”
IRON RIVER –Lee LeBlanc, 74, of 3819 W. Brule Lake Rd., died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. following a lengthy illness.
He was born Oct. 5, 1913 in Powers. When he was 2, the LeBlanc family moved to Crosby, Minn., and in 1929 he and his family moved to Iron River, where he graduated from Iron River High School in 1931. He was a veteran of World War II and was married to the former Lucille Hayworth. In 1962 he retired from the movie industry in California and the couple moved to Iron River to make their home at Brule Lake. Information on his career appears elsewhere in this week’s Reporter. He was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, the Audubon Society, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
He is survived by his wife Lucille of Brule Lake; two daughters, Deirdre LeBlanc of Van Nuys, Calif. and Patricia Wolfe of Minocqua, Wis.; a brother Edward LeBlanc of Marshall, Minn.; a sister Cecilia Rosera of Caspian; one granddaughter; and two great-grandsons.
Visitation was held July 24 at the Jacobs Funeral Home in Iron River, where the Masonic Lodge conducted Masonic services.
Services were held July 25 at the funeral home and at St. Agnes Catholic Church, with the Rev. Aloysius Hasenberg, pastor, officiating.
Pallbearers were Edward Kreski, Fred Angeli, Vincent Petrucelli, Tim Wolfe, John Novak and Edmond Goriesky. Soloist Richard Briggs was accompanied by Luella Ambach at the organ in “On Eagle’s Wings” and “How Great Thou Art.”
Burial was at Resthaven Cemetery in Iron River.
RUSSELL FINK GALLERY website (http://store.russellfinkgallery.com/leblanclee.html) (summary)
Wildlife artist Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan in the wooded Upper Peninsula. Art was his major interest in life since early childhood, and his parents Vincent and Alice always encouraged his desire to draw.
In 1931 after graduating from Iron River (Michigan) High School, he went to Los Angeles and spent a year studying art at Frank Wiggins Trade School. He left Los Angeles and went to New York hoping to find work as a commercial artist but after 3 weeks decided that New York wasn't for him. He then went to Philadelphia where he tended bar for three years to pay for more art lessons at LaFrance Art Institute. He moved back to New York again and worked as as a staff illustrator for the New York journal while also attending the Art Students League.
In 1937 he returned to Los Angeles where he worked at Western Lithography as a commercial artist. Six months later he joined Walt Disney's staff at a salary of $10 per week, but soon after he worked for better wages at the cartoon firm of Merry Melodies and Looney Tunes, illustrating such characters as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.
In 1955 his wife Helene died from a long-term illness, leaving him with a fourteen year old daughter, Dierdre. It was difficult for him to be both mother and father and work at the demanding schedule of the motion picture industry. As a break, he would at times go to the Michigan wilderness he loved so much especially for fishing. On one of these trips he met Lucille Hayworth and in 1958 they were married.
Lee was the administrator of the special effects photographic department for MGM Studios for six years, but in 1962, he moved back to Iron River where he and Lucille built a home on the shores of Brule Lake. Their daughter Patricia was born in the Iron River area. After twenty-five years in the motion picture industry with a high-paying job, this was a big risk, but his wife supported him and his wages eventually equalled what he had left.
Lee was a member of Ducks Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, The Audubon Society, National Geographic Society, the Ornithologist's Union, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
ABOUT.COM: ART HISTORY "Lee LeBlanc As I Knew Him" written by (daughter) Deirdre Anne LeBlanc (summary)
George Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan which was a small logging town in the Upper Peninsula. His parents were Vincent Ferrier LeBlanc and Alice Charbonneau LeBlanc, and he had an older sister, Cecile.
The family moved to Crosby, Minnesota to join Vincent's brother and his family, but returned to Michigan some years later and settled in Iron River. Vincent worked as the butcher for Angeli's Market for many years.
From early childhood Lee sketched and painted. During the Great Depression while he was in high school, he worked as a cook at the lumber camps around Iron River during the summer months.
Everyone admired Lee's artistic talent, but most people thought he should plan to work locally as a logger or get a job at the iron mines, but he longed to see life outside Michigan. He was a young Catholic man. In 1931 he and a friend Joe Tipton hopped on freight cars, traveling back and forth across the American plains, taking odd jobs to earn money for food. They stood in soup lines in the larger cities when no work could be found. He lived like the characters in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" which was one of his favorite novels.
Lee first studied art at the Jack Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, but he could find no work as an illustrator. He and his friend Joe went to New York where he thought he could work as a commercial artist. After three weeks he decided that New York wasn't for him, and he headed for Philadelphia. To earn money, he tended bar at night, and studied at La France Art Institute during the day. Next he took a job waiting tables in an Italian restaurant, and eventually married Antoinette, the daughter of the owners. A son Francis "Frankie" Caron LeBlanc was born, and although his in-laws wanted to groom him to take over the restaurant, in 1937 Lee left for Los Angeles, telling Antoinette that he would send for her and their son when he was settled into a good job.
Riding the rails through Texas, Lee was arrested by the police because he fit the description of Clyde Barrow, who was known to be in the area after having just robbed a bank in a nearby town. He was released in a few hours when they realized he wasn't their man.
Outside Los Angeles, he and Joe Tipton took a job at the Governor Mine in Acton CA mining gold for the son of California's first governor Peter H. Burnett, where they worked long days under the desert sun to make enough money for the rest of the trip to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Lee soon landed a job with Western Lithography as a commercial artist while living with his father's sister Min and her husband in Arcadia, a suburb of Los Angeles. He also tended bar at his uncle's establishment The Tack Room, which was near Santa Anita Racetrack.
In 1940 he met Helene Costello, the sister of Dolores Costello who had been married to John Barrymore. Both sisters were actresses and she helped him get his first job with Walt Disney, where he made $10 a week. After that he held slightly higher paying jobs at Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. During this time, he divorced Antoinette and married Helene. He was able to get into the Special Effects Department at Twentieth-Century Fox where his first job was building miniatures. When he was younger his true ambition had been to be sculptor, but since this was not feasible to make a living he used his talent for sketching and painting and became an apprentice painter.
About this time he dropped the name George and began signing his name Lee LeBlanc. Their daughter Deirdre was born on February 18 1941.
In World War II he joined the Merchant Marines and his wife Helene was in a sanitarium for tuberculosis. By the time the war ended they decided to divorce, and custody of Deirdre was given to Lee, who moved his parents to West Los Angeles to care for her.
During 1948-49 Lee was commissioned to draw and illuminate several maps for Admiral Perry. He then married a Russian, Rosalia Platonova. Lee LeBlanc's parents returned to Iron River, and daughter Deirdre was put in convent school. Rosalia could speak little English but wanted her citizenship. Over the next years they went through a long-fought divorce, and Lee was now supporting two former wives. Soon he began a friendship with Gwendolyn Reed, a woman who worked in the Fox Publicity Department and Lee moved in with Gwen and her mother in West Los Angeles.
Finally, because of Rosalia calling the judge a name in court one day, Dad's support for her was cut to one dollar a year. However, if Rosalia filed for hardship, Lee would need to pay more support. He could own nothing in his own name, or she would claim half of it, so he bought a car in Gwen's name.
Lee's dream was to be able to design and build his own home some day. In his spare time he would draw floor plans, and then build magnificent model homes out of balsa wood. The roofs lifted off so you could see inside, with furnishings, lighting and landscaping included. These generated such an interest at the studio that producers, directors, and department heads ordered them for their young daughters as dollhouses.
In 1954 Lee was sent to South Africa to get film research for the movie "Untamed", starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayworth, which was a somewhat dangerous trip as it was during the Mau Mau uprising. The summer of 1955 he decided to go to Iron River for a vacation. His daughter met cousins she didn't even know existed, and went out at night with flashlights collecting nightcrawlers for fishing the next day. They met Lucille Anderson and her husband, a couple who offered guided fishing and hunting trips to folks from big cities. Lucille also made money doing taxidermy.
In 1955 Lee became head of Matte Painting at MGM, and during the summer of 1956 he made another trip to Michigan to look for property.
In January of 1957 his former wife Helene died and he left Gwendolyn, getting an apartment in Playa del Rey near the Pacific Ocean. During the next two years he painted anything to do with outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, boating, and submitted them to various sporting magazines, like Field and Stream, to see if he could get some work illustrating for them.
That summer Lee made another trip to Michigan where Lucille Anderson helped Dad find a lovely piece of property on Brule Lake, just outside Iron River, Michigan. During the previous year's trip, they had fallen in love. Shortly thereafter, Lou began divorce proceedings. He made plans to leave the studios, leave California where he couldn't get a divorce from his Russian former wife, marry Lou, return to Iron River, build his own home, and paint for himself.
In 1962 Lee quit MGM, sold the house he and Lucille had bought and remodeled, and went to Reno to set up residence so he could divorce Rosalia. Then he married Lucille and in Iron River the couple moved in with his parents until they completed the building of their house. They had a new baby daughter Patricia "Tricia", and there was no easy way to make a decent living, but Lucille encouraged him.
Lee began to paint wildlife scenes which featured animals and birds, especially ducks, and he took courses in ornithology at Cornell. He was also illustrating children's books for Oddo, a small publishing company. Lucille even wrote one of the books that he illustrated.
Finally, with a varied collection of his latest wildlife works in hand, he drove to a nearby hunt club, and asked the owner if he might like to hang the paintings, and if any sold, the owner could take a commission. A man who bought two of Lee's paintings at the hunt club encouraged the couple to open their own gallery and sold them some property in Minocqua, Wisconsin on the Boardwalk with a view of the lake. Soon Lee won the coveted 1973-74 Federal Duck Stamp, after tying for second place the year before. He also won First of State Arkansas, First of State South Carolina, a Turkey Stamp for Texas, Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year, and numerous other honors and awards. In Arkansas he was honored by Nature Conservancy with a memorial bronze plaque for the work he did to save the wetlands there.
His last print was for the New York Conservation Commemorative stamp, after which he suffered a stroke. Lee was dying of onset leukemia, which was caused from over twenty years of working in his studio with an open can of paint thinner. He had begun using thinner when he decided it was too expensive to buy and ship in gallon cans of rectified turpentine from Detroit or Chicago. Many trips to the Marshfield, Wisconsin Clinic occured. He died in Iron River in 1988.
During his life he painted for David Rockefeller and Senator Strom Thurman. He was among the artists invited to the White House to commemorate 50 years of the Federal Duck Stamp while Ronald Reagan was President.
After his death, Iron River residents got the idea to honor their native son even further by building the Lee LeBlanc Wildlife Art Gallery as part of the Iron County Museum in Caspian, Michigan.
Members of the building committee were Ellie Coles, a friend and neighbor on Brule Lake, Harold and Marcia Bernhardt, Andy Busakowski, Jim and Delores Sapletal, Andy Davis, and Anna Mae Gugliotto, then President of the Miners State Bank.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter March 6 1991 "LeBlanc Framing Project Starts" with photo
IRON RIVER-When it opens later this year, the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery will be the only art gallery in the U.S. dedicated to one artist.
Last week, a drive started to frame over 100 pieces of art from the late wildlife artist, whose most productive years were spent at his studio on Brule Lake.
The new gallery is located on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Construction, which started last fall, is well along. Part of the ceiling is in, and painting of the walls is ready to start. Workers will put in the carpet soon, and a cultured stone exterior will be done in the spring.
The grand opening of the gallery is planned for Saturday, June 29.
So far, the Friends of LeBlanc Committee has raised over $138,000 to pay for the gallery's construction. Attention is now turning to the reason for the gallery-LeBlanc's work, which includes many wildlife works, as well as calendar work for Brown & Bigelow and mats from his work at MGM studios in Hollywood.
Lucille LeBlanc, Lee's widow, has donated 85 prints and 20 originals to the gallery, and plans call for museum quality framing for all of them, with acid-free mats and backing and ultraviolet glass. The works will be permanently attached to the gallery's walls.
Organizers are going the extra mile for the gallery. "It's a treasure to be preserved for generations to come," explained Anna Mae Gugliotto, secretary of the LeBlanc Committee.
The appeal has been extended with letters to area businesses and professionals, asking them to help with the cost. A small frame will cost $75; a regular frame is $100; and a large frame is $150.
A brass plate will be permanently attached to the wall beneath each picture, identifying the title of the picture and the name of the person or business who sponsored the framing.
Beyond the pictures, the gallery will also include a recreation of LeBlanc's gallery on Brule Lake.
On an easel will be LeBlanc's final work-a painting of four wolves walking in a wooded winter scene. His wife said the painting was still many hours away from being finished.
The many awards and photos with dignitaries that LeBlanc received over the years will also be displayed in the new gallery.
Lucille LeBlanc noted that over the years, Lee kept an inventory of his work on slides-when he finished a painting, he photographed it before shipping.
She said that she has been cutting mats for most of the winter, "So we're about ready to start." Andy Busakowski of Central Arts & Gifts will do much of the framing.
The committee also hopes to aid with the landscaping and shrubbery near the new gallery.
PHOTO CAPTION: Lucille LeBlanc shows an unfinished painting of four wolves, created by her late husband Lee LeBlanc, to Ed Kreski of Miners State Bank. The painting will be displayed at the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery, which will open this June on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Kreski made the first donation for the framing project, which started recently.
OBITUARY of Lucille LeBlanc 2004 says she married Lee LeBlanc in June of 1962 after meeting her husband in Michigan. They lived for a while in California, then moved to Michigan and lived at Brule Lake while they owned and operated an art gallery in Minocqua WI. He died July 21 1988.
INFORMATION FROM RESEARCHER Miah Tappa for 3rd Grade Museum project in 2017 says Lee LeBlanc was a motion picture & wildlife artist.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Death Claims Lee LeBlanc” page one with photo (not shown)
IRON RIVER – The career of Iron County’s foremost contributor to the field of wildlife art ended last week when Lee LeBlanc, 74, died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. after a lengthy illness.
But while services for LeBlanc were held Monday, his paintings depicting the beauty of the wild will draw special reverence for time immemorial.
For LeBlanc, the field of wildlife art, created at the studio in his home at Brule Lake, was the final, most fulfilling phase of a multifaceted career.
He lived here for much of his life, but he was born in Powers on Oct. 5, 1913. When he was 7, he moved with his family to Crosby, Minn. They moved back to the Upper Peninsula in 1929, this time settling down in Iron River. Lee remained here until after graduating from Iron River High School in 1931.
It was the middle of the Deprtession, but LeBlanc set out to make his mark in the field of art. He first attended the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, holding down part-time jobs to support himself, including tending bar for his uncle. Further studies were at Jepson Art School, the Chouinard Art Institute, the La France Art Institute in Philadelphia and the Art Students League in New York City. Those lessons were augmented by private tutoring under Will Foster, and later, Nicolai Fechin.
His first artistic employment was with Western Lithography. Soon after that, he began a highly respected career in the motion picture industry as a cartoonist for Walt Disney Studios. For a short time, he was employed at Looney Tunes for Warner Bros.
In 1941, he started working as a miniature builder. His career was interrupted by the armed forces during World War II. After the war, he became a matte painter in the special effects department at 20th Century-Fox, a post he held until 1956.
He next was hired as the head of the matte painting department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and he remained there until 1962, when he and his wife Lucille agreed that he should retire from the film industry and pursue his first love and ambition: wildlife art.
Lee and Lou returned to Iron River, where Lee began a new career, taking commissions for calendar art at Brown & Bigelow and Shedd Brown, Mepps and Gibson greeting cards, promotion and sales marketing companies, along with illustrating children’s books written by his wife, the former Lucille Hayworth.
His first big success in wildlife art came when he tied for second place in the competition for the 1972-73 federal duck stamp. He won the national contest the next year.
LeBlanc paintings have appeared on the covers of Ducks Unlimited magazine, and he was commissioned in 1974 for several bird paintings for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Awards started coming: the 1975 Golden Mallard Award from the Arkansas Wildlife Federation; artist of the year in 1976 for the Tennessee Ducks Unlimited; second place in the 1977 Michigan duck stamp contest; the Michigan Ducks Unlimited Waterfowl Artist Award in 1978; artist of the year by National Ducks Unlimited in 1980, the same year the Michigan house and senate passed a concurrent resolution of tribute to LeBlanc.
A LeBlanc picture of a bald eagle graced the cover of the Bicentennial issue of Michigan Out-Of-Doors magazine, and he was also commissioned to do the magazine’s January 1977 cover. In 1978 and 1979, he was a finalist in the Michigan Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp competition—in ’79 he was also a finalist for the Michigan Trout Stamp competition.
Several “first of state” waterfowl stamps, in Arkansas and South Carolina, featured LeBlanc artwork. He painted the Deer Unlimited print in 1981 and the print and stamp for the Wild Turkey Federation in 1982.
The quality never was less than the very best. When the Great Lakes Wildlife Art Festival was held in Milwaukee in 1986, LeBlanc was the honored artist. Last year, he was a national finalist in the “Art for the Parks” national contest.
On July 30, this Saturday, a wildlife preserve near Stuttgart, Ark. will be named after LeBlanc—posthumously. It will not be the first marsh in LeBlanc’s honor: several years ago, a marsh in western Manitoba was named in his honor by Ducks Unlimited.
LeBlanc was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
When the local Ducks Unlimited chapter was getting started in 1980, LeBlanc donated an original oil painting of bluebills that was raffled off to help the chapter get some firm financial footing.
In and around the Iron River area, LeBlanc’s wildlife paintings were a familiar sight to anyone visiting Miners State Bank, where they usually were prominently displayed in the lobby. He donated his art to assist many fund-raising efforts in the community.
One, in particular, was a painting of loons near a lake, one settling on a nest and the other “dancing” on the water’s surface. Prints of that one were sold to raise money for construction of the Cultural Center at the Iron County Historical Museum in Caspian.
The Cultural Center features a permanent display of LeBlanc artwork.
His obituary appears on page 5 of this week’s issue.
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 27 1988 “Obituaries: Lee LeBlanc”
IRON RIVER –Lee LeBlanc, 74, of 3819 W. Brule Lake Rd., died July 21 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wis. following a lengthy illness.
He was born Oct. 5, 1913 in Powers. When he was 2, the LeBlanc family moved to Crosby, Minn., and in 1929 he and his family moved to Iron River, where he graduated from Iron River High School in 1931. He was a veteran of World War II and was married to the former Lucille Hayworth. In 1962 he retired from the movie industry in California and the couple moved to Iron River to make their home at Brule Lake. Information on his career appears elsewhere in this week’s Reporter. He was a member of Ducks Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, the Audubon Society, the National Geographic Society, the Ornithologists Union, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Society of Animal Artists.
He is survived by his wife Lucille of Brule Lake; two daughters, Deirdre LeBlanc of Van Nuys, Calif. and Patricia Wolfe of Minocqua, Wis.; a brother Edward LeBlanc of Marshall, Minn.; a sister Cecilia Rosera of Caspian; one granddaughter; and two great-grandsons.
Visitation was held July 24 at the Jacobs Funeral Home in Iron River, where the Masonic Lodge conducted Masonic services.
Services were held July 25 at the funeral home and at St. Agnes Catholic Church, with the Rev. Aloysius Hasenberg, pastor, officiating.
Pallbearers were Edward Kreski, Fred Angeli, Vincent Petrucelli, Tim Wolfe, John Novak and Edmond Goriesky. Soloist Richard Briggs was accompanied by Luella Ambach at the organ in “On Eagle’s Wings” and “How Great Thou Art.”
Burial was at Resthaven Cemetery in Iron River.
RUSSELL FINK GALLERY website (http://store.russellfinkgallery.com/leblanclee.html) (summary)
Wildlife artist Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan in the wooded Upper Peninsula. Art was his major interest in life since early childhood, and his parents Vincent and Alice always encouraged his desire to draw.
In 1931 after graduating from Iron River (Michigan) High School, he went to Los Angeles and spent a year studying art at Frank Wiggins Trade School. He left Los Angeles and went to New York hoping to find work as a commercial artist but after 3 weeks decided that New York wasn't for him. He then went to Philadelphia where he tended bar for three years to pay for more art lessons at LaFrance Art Institute. He moved back to New York again and worked as as a staff illustrator for the New York journal while also attending the Art Students League.
In 1937 he returned to Los Angeles where he worked at Western Lithography as a commercial artist. Six months later he joined Walt Disney's staff at a salary of $10 per week, but soon after he worked for better wages at the cartoon firm of Merry Melodies and Looney Tunes, illustrating such characters as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.
In 1955 his wife Helene died from a long-term illness, leaving him with a fourteen year old daughter, Dierdre. It was difficult for him to be both mother and father and work at the demanding schedule of the motion picture industry. As a break, he would at times go to the Michigan wilderness he loved so much especially for fishing. On one of these trips he met Lucille Hayworth and in 1958 they were married.
Lee was the administrator of the special effects photographic department for MGM Studios for six years, but in 1962, he moved back to Iron River where he and Lucille built a home on the shores of Brule Lake. Their daughter Patricia was born in the Iron River area. After twenty-five years in the motion picture industry with a high-paying job, this was a big risk, but his wife supported him and his wages eventually equalled what he had left.
Lee was a member of Ducks Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, The Audubon Society, National Geographic Society, the Ornithologist's Union, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
ABOUT.COM: ART HISTORY "Lee LeBlanc As I Knew Him" written by (daughter) Deirdre Anne LeBlanc (summary)
George Lee LeBlanc was born October 5 1913 in Powers, Michigan which was a small logging town in the Upper Peninsula. His parents were Vincent Ferrier LeBlanc and Alice Charbonneau LeBlanc, and he had an older sister, Cecile.
The family moved to Crosby, Minnesota to join Vincent's brother and his family, but returned to Michigan some years later and settled in Iron River. Vincent worked as the butcher for Angeli's Market for many years.
From early childhood Lee sketched and painted. During the Great Depression while he was in high school, he worked as a cook at the lumber camps around Iron River during the summer months.
Everyone admired Lee's artistic talent, but most people thought he should plan to work locally as a logger or get a job at the iron mines, but he longed to see life outside Michigan. He was a young Catholic man. In 1931 he and a friend Joe Tipton hopped on freight cars, traveling back and forth across the American plains, taking odd jobs to earn money for food. They stood in soup lines in the larger cities when no work could be found. He lived like the characters in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" which was one of his favorite novels.
Lee first studied art at the Jack Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles, but he could find no work as an illustrator. He and his friend Joe went to New York where he thought he could work as a commercial artist. After three weeks he decided that New York wasn't for him, and he headed for Philadelphia. To earn money, he tended bar at night, and studied at La France Art Institute during the day. Next he took a job waiting tables in an Italian restaurant, and eventually married Antoinette, the daughter of the owners. A son Francis "Frankie" Caron LeBlanc was born, and although his in-laws wanted to groom him to take over the restaurant, in 1937 Lee left for Los Angeles, telling Antoinette that he would send for her and their son when he was settled into a good job.
Riding the rails through Texas, Lee was arrested by the police because he fit the description of Clyde Barrow, who was known to be in the area after having just robbed a bank in a nearby town. He was released in a few hours when they realized he wasn't their man.
Outside Los Angeles, he and Joe Tipton took a job at the Governor Mine in Acton CA mining gold for the son of California's first governor Peter H. Burnett, where they worked long days under the desert sun to make enough money for the rest of the trip to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Lee soon landed a job with Western Lithography as a commercial artist while living with his father's sister Min and her husband in Arcadia, a suburb of Los Angeles. He also tended bar at his uncle's establishment The Tack Room, which was near Santa Anita Racetrack.
In 1940 he met Helene Costello, the sister of Dolores Costello who had been married to John Barrymore. Both sisters were actresses and she helped him get his first job with Walt Disney, where he made $10 a week. After that he held slightly higher paying jobs at Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. During this time, he divorced Antoinette and married Helene. He was able to get into the Special Effects Department at Twentieth-Century Fox where his first job was building miniatures. When he was younger his true ambition had been to be sculptor, but since this was not feasible to make a living he used his talent for sketching and painting and became an apprentice painter.
About this time he dropped the name George and began signing his name Lee LeBlanc. Their daughter Deirdre was born on February 18 1941.
In World War II he joined the Merchant Marines and his wife Helene was in a sanitarium for tuberculosis. By the time the war ended they decided to divorce, and custody of Deirdre was given to Lee, who moved his parents to West Los Angeles to care for her.
During 1948-49 Lee was commissioned to draw and illuminate several maps for Admiral Perry. He then married a Russian, Rosalia Platonova. Lee LeBlanc's parents returned to Iron River, and daughter Deirdre was put in convent school. Rosalia could speak little English but wanted her citizenship. Over the next years they went through a long-fought divorce, and Lee was now supporting two former wives. Soon he began a friendship with Gwendolyn Reed, a woman who worked in the Fox Publicity Department and Lee moved in with Gwen and her mother in West Los Angeles.
Finally, because of Rosalia calling the judge a name in court one day, Dad's support for her was cut to one dollar a year. However, if Rosalia filed for hardship, Lee would need to pay more support. He could own nothing in his own name, or she would claim half of it, so he bought a car in Gwen's name.
Lee's dream was to be able to design and build his own home some day. In his spare time he would draw floor plans, and then build magnificent model homes out of balsa wood. The roofs lifted off so you could see inside, with furnishings, lighting and landscaping included. These generated such an interest at the studio that producers, directors, and department heads ordered them for their young daughters as dollhouses.
In 1954 Lee was sent to South Africa to get film research for the movie "Untamed", starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayworth, which was a somewhat dangerous trip as it was during the Mau Mau uprising. The summer of 1955 he decided to go to Iron River for a vacation. His daughter met cousins she didn't even know existed, and went out at night with flashlights collecting nightcrawlers for fishing the next day. They met Lucille Anderson and her husband, a couple who offered guided fishing and hunting trips to folks from big cities. Lucille also made money doing taxidermy.
In 1955 Lee became head of Matte Painting at MGM, and during the summer of 1956 he made another trip to Michigan to look for property.
In January of 1957 his former wife Helene died and he left Gwendolyn, getting an apartment in Playa del Rey near the Pacific Ocean. During the next two years he painted anything to do with outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, boating, and submitted them to various sporting magazines, like Field and Stream, to see if he could get some work illustrating for them.
That summer Lee made another trip to Michigan where Lucille Anderson helped Dad find a lovely piece of property on Brule Lake, just outside Iron River, Michigan. During the previous year's trip, they had fallen in love. Shortly thereafter, Lou began divorce proceedings. He made plans to leave the studios, leave California where he couldn't get a divorce from his Russian former wife, marry Lou, return to Iron River, build his own home, and paint for himself.
In 1962 Lee quit MGM, sold the house he and Lucille had bought and remodeled, and went to Reno to set up residence so he could divorce Rosalia. Then he married Lucille and in Iron River the couple moved in with his parents until they completed the building of their house. They had a new baby daughter Patricia "Tricia", and there was no easy way to make a decent living, but Lucille encouraged him.
Lee began to paint wildlife scenes which featured animals and birds, especially ducks, and he took courses in ornithology at Cornell. He was also illustrating children's books for Oddo, a small publishing company. Lucille even wrote one of the books that he illustrated.
Finally, with a varied collection of his latest wildlife works in hand, he drove to a nearby hunt club, and asked the owner if he might like to hang the paintings, and if any sold, the owner could take a commission. A man who bought two of Lee's paintings at the hunt club encouraged the couple to open their own gallery and sold them some property in Minocqua, Wisconsin on the Boardwalk with a view of the lake. Soon Lee won the coveted 1973-74 Federal Duck Stamp, after tying for second place the year before. He also won First of State Arkansas, First of State South Carolina, a Turkey Stamp for Texas, Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year, and numerous other honors and awards. In Arkansas he was honored by Nature Conservancy with a memorial bronze plaque for the work he did to save the wetlands there.
His last print was for the New York Conservation Commemorative stamp, after which he suffered a stroke. Lee was dying of onset leukemia, which was caused from over twenty years of working in his studio with an open can of paint thinner. He had begun using thinner when he decided it was too expensive to buy and ship in gallon cans of rectified turpentine from Detroit or Chicago. Many trips to the Marshfield, Wisconsin Clinic occured. He died in Iron River in 1988.
During his life he painted for David Rockefeller and Senator Strom Thurman. He was among the artists invited to the White House to commemorate 50 years of the Federal Duck Stamp while Ronald Reagan was President.
After his death, Iron River residents got the idea to honor their native son even further by building the Lee LeBlanc Wildlife Art Gallery as part of the Iron County Museum in Caspian, Michigan.
Members of the building committee were Ellie Coles, a friend and neighbor on Brule Lake, Harold and Marcia Bernhardt, Andy Busakowski, Jim and Delores Sapletal, Andy Davis, and Anna Mae Gugliotto, then President of the Miners State Bank.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter March 6 1991 "LeBlanc Framing Project Starts" with photo
IRON RIVER-When it opens later this year, the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery will be the only art gallery in the U.S. dedicated to one artist.
Last week, a drive started to frame over 100 pieces of art from the late wildlife artist, whose most productive years were spent at his studio on Brule Lake.
The new gallery is located on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Construction, which started last fall, is well along. Part of the ceiling is in, and painting of the walls is ready to start. Workers will put in the carpet soon, and a cultured stone exterior will be done in the spring.
The grand opening of the gallery is planned for Saturday, June 29.
So far, the Friends of LeBlanc Committee has raised over $138,000 to pay for the gallery's construction. Attention is now turning to the reason for the gallery-LeBlanc's work, which includes many wildlife works, as well as calendar work for Brown & Bigelow and mats from his work at MGM studios in Hollywood.
Lucille LeBlanc, Lee's widow, has donated 85 prints and 20 originals to the gallery, and plans call for museum quality framing for all of them, with acid-free mats and backing and ultraviolet glass. The works will be permanently attached to the gallery's walls.
Organizers are going the extra mile for the gallery. "It's a treasure to be preserved for generations to come," explained Anna Mae Gugliotto, secretary of the LeBlanc Committee.
The appeal has been extended with letters to area businesses and professionals, asking them to help with the cost. A small frame will cost $75; a regular frame is $100; and a large frame is $150.
A brass plate will be permanently attached to the wall beneath each picture, identifying the title of the picture and the name of the person or business who sponsored the framing.
Beyond the pictures, the gallery will also include a recreation of LeBlanc's gallery on Brule Lake.
On an easel will be LeBlanc's final work-a painting of four wolves walking in a wooded winter scene. His wife said the painting was still many hours away from being finished.
The many awards and photos with dignitaries that LeBlanc received over the years will also be displayed in the new gallery.
Lucille LeBlanc noted that over the years, Lee kept an inventory of his work on slides-when he finished a painting, he photographed it before shipping.
She said that she has been cutting mats for most of the winter, "So we're about ready to start." Andy Busakowski of Central Arts & Gifts will do much of the framing.
The committee also hopes to aid with the landscaping and shrubbery near the new gallery.
PHOTO CAPTION: Lucille LeBlanc shows an unfinished painting of four wolves, created by her late husband Lee LeBlanc, to Ed Kreski of Miners State Bank. The painting will be displayed at the Lee LeBlanc Memorial Gallery, which will open this June on the grounds of the Iron County Museum in Caspian. Kreski made the first donation for the framing project, which started recently.
OBITUARY of Lucille LeBlanc 2004 says she married Lee LeBlanc in June of 1962 after meeting her husband in Michigan. They lived for a while in California, then moved to Michigan and lived at Brule Lake while they owned and operated an art gallery in Minocqua WI. He died July 21 1988.
INFORMATION FROM RESEARCHER Miah Tappa for 3rd Grade Museum project in 2017 says Lee LeBlanc was a motion picture & wildlife artist.
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