Carol Ann Shea

Carol Ann Shea passed away on December 12, 2022 at her home in Prospect, KY. A funeral service for Carol will be held Friday, December 30, 2022, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM at Heady-Radcliffe Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 706 W Jefferson St, La Grange, KY 40031. Relatives and friends are invited to visit with the family from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at the funeral home prior to the service.

Carol was born to the late Violet Belcourt and George Wright on April 17, 1935 in Buffalo, NY where she grew up, attended school, and began training and working as an artist. Carol spoke fondly of her childhood, her mother’s French-Canadian background, and the homes in Buffalo where her family lived. She attended the Art Institute of Buffalo and Albright Art School, as well as the Bryant-Stratton Business Institute. Carol also had a love of Japanese culture and art. She studied Japanese watercolor painting with a master Japanese artist in Buffalo. Her first jobs illustrating furniture and men’s fashions for newspapers were with Victor’s Department Store and Hens & Kelly Department store in Buffalo, and she also served as an officer of the Art Directors Club of Buffalo. In 1986, a decade and a half after leaving Buffalo, Carol became a creative associate in partnership with The Wright Connection, a small business that produced and marketed original art works.

Carol married the late John F. Shea in 1961 after the couple met on a ski trip. Carol and John lived in Baltimore, MD; Orlando, FL; Lakewood, CO; Langdon, ND;

Hampton, VA; and Woodbridge, VA. Carol moved to Prospect, KY to be near family after John passed away in 2015.

Carol continued her work as an artist throughout the early years of her marriage to John and while raising their three children. She published illustrations of antique, colonial, Shaker, Pennsylvania Dutch, and contemporary furniture in books on furniture-making published by her father-in-law, John G. Shea. While living in Colorado with John, she worked with the National Association for the blind designing textured illustrations and maps for books. During a brief stint in Honolulu and Midway Island, Hawaii, Carol joined John in working for the Federal Electric Corporation where she used her graphic arts and illustration skills to design business proposals and production processes. In Landon, ND, where their children attended school, Carol explored teaching and theater set design while also expanding into new folk art styles and techniques including work on metal and wood surfaces, rosemaling, and china painting. Carol was instrumental in designing a wood carving of the Blessed Mother which is still enjoyed today at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Langdon. She showed her work in local galleries and worked on custom projects by commission. She was keen, curious, and always ready to learn a new style or technique to incorporate into her repertoire.

In 1988, Carol and John moved to Hampton, VA. While in Hampton, viewing art exhibits and working on layout and printing production for the Poquoson Island Times grew Carol’s interest in watercolor and Japanese painting, along with paper arts and printmaking. In 1991 Carol and John moved to Northern Virginia. This allowed Carol to frequent the museums and art collections of Washington, D.C., and to introduce them to her grandchildren when they came on visits. She enjoyed the arts scene in Occoquan, VA where she and John retired, as well as cultivating her patio gardens in the Japanese-influenced style she liked.

Carol carefully honed and shared her creative gifts, which she passed on to her grandchildren—in many happy memories of grandma-led craft sessions, cherished handmade gifts, and in their various creative talents and careers.

Carol will be deeply missed by her children: Vada Dreisbach (Frank) of Longmont, CO, John W. Shea (Mary) of La Grange, KY and Michael F. Shea (DeAnne) of Prior Lake, MN: grandchildren Emerson, Hannah, Sydney, Stephanie, Arielle, Julia, John Theodore and Elisabeth and great-grandchildren Emery and Emma.

Memorial donations can be made to the Macular Degeneration Research Foundation (support.brightfocus.org/) or the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org) in Carol's name.