Ardath Francille Hill

Artist, Wife, Mother

Ardath was born November of 1935 in Kalamazoo, Michigan and spent her formative

years moving around the states with her mother and sisters, Anne and Beth, for their father’s

News Editor jobs. The girls went to schools in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas. They were in

Sweetwater, Texas during WWII while their father, Louis, covered stories in the Pacific and

mother, Francille, served as a Red Cross supervisor.

Ardath graduated from Sioux City Highschool in Iowa where she enjoyed being a gifted

piano accompanist, flute player, singer, and beautiful Homecoming Queen. She studied

Journalism and Art for three years at Morningside College with a summer term at Cranbrook Art

Academy. While chaperoning her sister Beth in San Francisco, Ardath met the love of her life, a

young Navy Officer out of the Annapolis Academy, Earl Hill. They were married in Sioux City on

Earl’s Thanksgiving leave, and moved to California, where their first son Bruce was born.

Earl left the navy for a Research Engineer position with MIT, just in time for the start of

MITRE corporation in Massachusetts where their daughter Molly was born. Between

assignments from the east coast to NORAD in Colorado, their daughter Rebecca was born near

Ardath’s parents home in Iowa. Their final child, Douglas was born in Colorado Springs.

In March of 1964, the whole family moved to Paris, France while Earl worked for NATO

for three years. While in Europe the family took many trips in their VW Van camping and touring

famous sites and ski areas. Ardath took French art classes and painted several works of the

sights there.

In 1967 they returned to the States on a final trip of the USS United States and settled in

the Stone Haven Community of Annandale, Virginia. Ardath was a constant tutor, great family

cook, soccer-basketball-swim team mom, and a fabulous Girl Scout Leader. She even took time

to be Lake Braddock HS’s first Yearbook editor, and was always volunteering her talents. While

Ardath was on the run with the four kids’ activities, she still made time to sing with the First

Presbyterian Church of Annandale. She was the cool mom that would allow extended sleep

overs and the greatest Halloween parties. Ardath was one of the first Furniture Up-Cyclers and

adopted and refinished many gorgeous antiques to adorn their home.

Once the kids were in High School, Ardath went back to school at NOVA, and received

an AAS degree in Commercial Art. She worked for Impact Communications in the late 1970s,

creating incredibly mod and edgy advertising works of art. From 1981 to 1983 she was able to

golf and study new art forms in Hawaii where Earl had taken an assignment in the Pacific

Command Center.

Back in Virginia from 1983 till 2016, she concentrated on fine arts with a focus on

figurative paintings. Ardath received at least 46 Awards and Distinctions for fine sketches,

paintings and multi-media art from the Springfield, Stamford, Capital Hill, The Art League, and

many other Art Associations. She had studios in The Torpedo Factory and Artemisia of Old

Town Alexandria, where some of her art was sold before it could even be hung for shows. She

had many Solo and Curated Ensemble Shows in the Washington DC and Ocean City, Maryland

areas.

As a member of many Art Leagues, she kept busy as a judge, curator, docent, and

moderator of many art classes. Unfortunately, in 2016 her hands became numb and she had to

give up creating the art she loved. Ardath blamed the chemicals she used in refinishing furniture

and painting. She wrote her own partial obituary to urge all her artist friends to “sell all your

works while you are still able to”.

Ardath suffered from Alzheimer’s and passed October 12, 2021. She is survived by her

husband of 66 years, Earl, their children Bruce, Molly, Becky and Doug and their respective

families, with seven grandchildren, and two great grand-babies. A Celebration of Life Ceremony

is being planned for the Spring of 2022, and an eventual interning of ashes at the Naval

Academy.

Fond memories and testimonials are being stored and encouraged on the Demaine Fairfax

Funeral Home website. Any organization or friends wishing to have some of Ardath’s works of

art should contact Becky at [email protected].