Leta Kennedy

Leta Kennedy

Kennedy, Leta

Pendleton 1895

Oregon

Portland 1986

painter

printmaker

Northwest artist

Oregon artist

Leta Kennedy was born on a farm near Pendleton and, in 1909, moved to Portland, where she attended Jefferson High School. She received her teaching certificate from Columbia University and returned to Oregon in 1922 to assume a faculty position at Portland's Museum Art School, remaining there for forty-nine years. Kennedy taught the full spectrum of art media with strengths in design and ceramics. William Givler, former dean, said, "Many, many young artists in the area shared in what she had to give." Her main interest was in teaching, although she exhibited watercolors and oils at the Philadelphia Art Alliance and other venues. She worked in ceramics, crafts, and was also a designer.

Artist biography reproduced with permission from the authors, Oregon Painters: the First Hundred Years (1859-1959), Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit.

Female