Artist brought sense of sacramentality to all her works; housing designer, Catholic Worker illustrator Ade Bethune dies at 88 - Appreciation - Brief Article - Obituary

National Catholic Reporter, May 24, 2002 by Mark Pattison

A funeral Mass was celebrated May 4 at Portsmouth Abbey in Portsmouth, R.I., for Ade Bethune, whose artwork appeared in The Catholic Worker newspaper for more than 60 years.

Bethune, 88, died May 1 of complications from pneumonia and leukemia in Newport, R.I.

Born Adelaide de Bethune in Schaerbeek, Belgium, she emigrated to the United States in 1928. She signed her artworks "A. de Bethune." Because of a misunderstanding at the printer's shop, her first byline was "Ade Bethune." She kept the name, and pronounced the first name AH-dee.

Bethune died at Harbor House, a onetime Carmelite retreat house in Newport that she helped redesign for senior living.

In 1966, Bethune cofounded Church Community Housing Corp., which has developed 100 single-family housing units and 500 rental units, and assisted other organizations in building another 200 units, for poor residents in Newport County, R.I., according to Steve Ostiguy, its executive director.

"She has done some architectural designs as well as some very artistic designs. She designed most of the houses that were built by [Church Community] in the early 1970s," Ostiguy said in a May 7 telephone interview. "Her influence continued through every project we've done since then.

"She's actively reviewed every project to see that the family that lived there has the best designs," he added, including natural light and easy access to the laundry facility.

In the Harbor House project, Ostiguy said, developers "got plans approved, and started financing and construction. But Ade started redesigning so that is was completely different from when we started out.

... It was redesigned at least three times. Ade was out there every day with her hard hat and her big yellow boots making sure that everything got done right. To everyone's annoyance, she was always right."

Artist Anna Rokitsky, who was an apprentice under Bethune, said, "She Was so wonderful. She's awesome.... Like many who were apprenticed to her, we end up training to be social workers or nurses." Rokitsky is nearing completion for a degree in social work.

Bethune was art director of the Terra Sancta Guild, which made religious goods on special order. Among its items were decorated Advent wreaths for the home, door signs and door knockers to extend welcome in the name of the Lord, and a pendant cross signifying that the wearer is a priest.

From 1933 to 1938, Bethune was closely associated with Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin of the Catholic Worker movement. Her artwork has been part of The Catholic Worker newspaper masthead since 1938.

In fall 1933, she visited the Catholic Worker community in New York City for the first time, and offered to make drawings for its newspaper. On her second visit, Bethune brought two shopping bags of clothes for poor people. She was wearing a trench coat and beret. Dorothy Day thought she was carrying her belongings and looking for shelter.

In her 1952 book, The Long Loneliness, Day wrote: "Whenever I visited Ade I came away with a renewed zest for life. She has such a sense of the sacramentality of life, the goodness of things, a sense that is translated in all her works whether it was illustrating a missal, making stained-glass windows or sewing, cooking or gardening. To do things perfectly was always her aim. Another first principle she always taught was to aim high."

In 1936, Bethune began working with Newport artist John Howard Benson. She also taught art at the Portsmouth Priory (now Abbey) School. In the 1940s, she set up the St. Leo Shop, which established her as a liturgical artist and consultant in church architecture. She was also a sculptor, painter, mosaic artist, wood carver, and jewelry and metalworker.

Bethune's works can be found in special collections at the College of St. Catherine in Minneapolis and at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

She was buried at the Portsmouth Abbey, where she was an oblate.

By MARK PATTISON

Catholic News Service Washington