Patricia
Hill
Burnett
September 5, 1920 - December 29, 2014
Born in Brooklyn, New York
PATRICIA HILL BURNETT, artist and feminist, whose long and ever-surprising path took her from noted beauty and socialite to founding feminist, died peacefully at home on December 29th after seizing the day for 94 years.
Born in Brooklyn, she grew up in Washington, D.C., and Toledo, Ohio before accompanying her mother, Mimi Uline Hill, to Detroit. Educated at Goucher College, she moved from local modeling to winning Miss Congeniality and runner-up in the1942 Miss America Contest, and from there to prominent voice roles on WXYZ's The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet.
During this time, she gradually built her career as a painter and sculptor. Her first commissioned portrait was at age 14. She went on to paint Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Joyce Carol Oates, Corazon Aquino, and too many Michigan politicians, business personalities, and social celebrities to list. Her 2008 portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsberg hangs in the National Bar Association in Manhattan, that of Betty Ford at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, and she was at work on a large-scale floral painting until her sudden illness last week.
In the early 1960s, her life took an unexpected turn towards feminism. Working with Betty Friedan, she co-founded the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and later served on its National Board, chaired its International Board, and chaired the Michigan's Women's Commission before being appointed the Chair of the National Association of Women's Commissions by President Carter. She convened the first International Women's Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1973, then traveled around the world promoting women's rights through the 1970s and 1980s. For more than five decades, from the local podium to national media, she merged her commitment to women's rights with her Republican Party affiliation as skillfully as her careers in art and public service.
Her book True Colors chronicled her unconventional life, her extremely sociable nature and the spontaneous joy she took in creating change.
She was honored with a doctorate from the College for Creative Studies in 2009 for her lifetime contribution to the arts community of Detroit. Other recent recognitions include the Wonder Woman Award in 2013, "Salute America" and "Women Who Made a Difference" from the International Women's Forum, both in 2006, and the Michigan Women's Foundation's "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2001. Her papers relating to her career as a feminist are archived at the Bentley Library at the University of Michigan.
After a brief marriage to William Lange, she enjoyed long marriages to Harry Albert Burnett, Jr. and Robert Siler. She leaves William Hill Lange, Harry A. Burnett III, Terrill Hill Burnett, Hillary Hill Burnett and grandchildren Honora, Delia and Liliana Burnett, Blaize and Aiden Wallace, and Thea, Marina and Remy Mayaud. The world is richer with opportunity for women, more beautiful and more interesting for having had her in it.
Visitation is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Jan. 12 at A.J. Desmond & Sons, 32515 Woodward Ave., Royal Oak.
Born in Brooklyn, she grew up in Washington, D.C., and Toledo, Ohio before accompanying her mother, Mimi Uline Hill, to Detroit. Educated at Goucher College, she moved from local modeling to winning Miss Congeniality and runner-up in the1942 Miss America Contest, and from there to prominent voice roles on WXYZ's The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet.
During this time, she gradually built her career as a painter and sculptor. Her first commissioned portrait was at age 14. She went on to paint Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Joyce Carol Oates, Corazon Aquino, and too many Michigan politicians, business personalities, and social celebrities to list. Her 2008 portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsberg hangs in the National Bar Association in Manhattan, that of Betty Ford at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, and she was at work on a large-scale floral painting until her sudden illness last week.
In the early 1960s, her life took an unexpected turn towards feminism. Working with Betty Friedan, she co-founded the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and later served on its National Board, chaired its International Board, and chaired the Michigan's Women's Commission before being appointed the Chair of the National Association of Women's Commissions by President Carter. She convened the first International Women's Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1973, then traveled around the world promoting women's rights through the 1970s and 1980s. For more than five decades, from the local podium to national media, she merged her commitment to women's rights with her Republican Party affiliation as skillfully as her careers in art and public service.
Her book True Colors chronicled her unconventional life, her extremely sociable nature and the spontaneous joy she took in creating change.
She was honored with a doctorate from the College for Creative Studies in 2009 for her lifetime contribution to the arts community of Detroit. Other recent recognitions include the Wonder Woman Award in 2013, "Salute America" and "Women Who Made a Difference" from the International Women's Forum, both in 2006, and the Michigan Women's Foundation's "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2001. Her papers relating to her career as a feminist are archived at the Bentley Library at the University of Michigan.
After a brief marriage to William Lange, she enjoyed long marriages to Harry Albert Burnett, Jr. and Robert Siler. She leaves William Hill Lange, Harry A. Burnett III, Terrill Hill Burnett, Hillary Hill Burnett and grandchildren Honora, Delia and Liliana Burnett, Blaize and Aiden Wallace, and Thea, Marina and Remy Mayaud. The world is richer with opportunity for women, more beautiful and more interesting for having had her in it.
Visitation is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Jan. 12 at A.J. Desmond & Sons, 32515 Woodward Ave., Royal Oak.
Visitation
A.J. Desmond & Sons (Vasu, Rodgers & Connell Chapel)
32515 Woodward Ave.
Royal Oak, MI US 48073
Royal Oak, MI US 48073
