West Texas artist, Mary Virginia Leeah Booth born in Houston, Texas on December 27, 1921, passed away on Sunday, December 28, 2014 in El Paso, Texas, one day after her 93rd birthday. Her family had moved to West Texas when Mary was eleven and she grew up in Sierra Blanca. From a very early age, she loved to draw and paint pictures but there was little opportunity to develop her talent in a small West Texas town during the depression years of the ‘30s. So, after graduating from high school, from 1940 to 1942, Mary studied weekly under early El Paso artist, Leola Freeman who maintained a studio in the Paso Del Norte Hotel. Following her studies with Leola Freeman, Mary returned to the city of her birth for further study, building a foundation in the fundamentals of art by completing two years of study at the University of Houston, followed by an additional two years at the Museum of Fine Arts where she fell in love with landscape painting. Returning to Sierra Blanca, she married rancher Oscar Booth who was also with the Department of Agriculture, and they started a family. Mary went to work for the draft board of Hudspeth and Culberson Counties, retiring almost 20 years later as its executive director. She was a long-time member of First United Methodist Church in Sierra Blanca where for many years she played the organ. Mary always found time to paint and shared her love for it by teaching others, giving lessons in the Sierra Blanca-Van Horn area for 20 years. Mary was preceded in death by her husband Oscar Booth, brother James Leeah, and daughter, Molly Booth, and is survived by her brother, Joe Leeah and his wife, Jean, of El Paso, Texas, and granddaughter, Lainie Koch and her husband, Kyle and great grandson, Daniel Koch of Allamoore, Texas. A memorial service for Mary Booth will be held Friday, January 2, 2015 at 2:00 pm at Harding Orr & McDaniel on 320 Montana Ave, El Paso, Texas.
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