Lucy Lee Fitzgerald Gant, of New York City, passed peacefully on September 13, 2023, surrounded by her children. Born in 1928, she graduated valedictorian at Stratford Hall in Danville, Virginia, attended Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and received a BA in Fine Art from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York in 1951.
Lucy Lee was an artist who was comfortable in the mediums of oils, charcoal, and crayon, which extended throughout her life. She captured moments in her children’s lives, floral still lifes, seascapes and boats, as well as the hardscapes of the 59th Street Bridge. Her work was shown with the Abington Square Painters in New York, as well as numerous shows in North Carolina.
She was an adventurous, exuberant soul who loved traveling and discovering art around the world. Her travels included the Silk Road caves in China, which brought her to the middle of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
We will miss her generous hospitality and her enthusiastic involvement with the National Society of Colonial Dames, Nichi Bei Foundation, Blue Ridge School, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.
She is survived by her children, Martha Fitzgerald Childs Alix, Edward Buckner Childs, and Russell Henry James Childs; grandchildren, Isabelle Alix, William Alix, Caroline Alix, Sarah Kate Childs, Russell Childs, Venus Childs, John Childs, and Emily Childs; and great-grandson Alfred Malo Skalli. She is predeceased by her son, Theodore Quentin Childs, and her parents, Russell and Martha (Fitzgerald) Gant.
A memorial service will be held on November 10, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 325 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. A cenotaph placement will follow at a later date at Pine Hill Cemetery, Burlington, N.C.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Bart’s, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, or the New Britain Animal Control.