Carol Duke, Bellevue Arts Patron, Dies At 67

BELLEVUE - She couldn't draw and she never formally studied art, but friends called Carol Duke the conscience of the Bellevue arts community. Mrs. Duke, 67, died Sunday after a lengthy battle with cancer.

She was a board member of the Bellevue Art Museum and its predecessor, the Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Association, for 33 years and was general chairwoman of the Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair in 1965 and 1966.

"She was really the conscience of the museum and the conscience of the fair," said Yvonne Miller, a board member and friend.

Friends praised Mrs. Duke's eye for fine art and her calm, dependable, organized demeanor that helped build a strong appreciation for the fine arts in Bellevue. Miller credited Mrs. Duke's enthusiasm for helping make the arts and crafts fair what it is today.

Despite her nine-year battle with cancer, she stayed active in the arts until her last days. On Friday, the museum's board of trustees gathered at her house and read a resolution to name a gallery of the new Bellevue Art Museum after her.

"She was just so strong," said her daughter, Virginia Gardner, who remembered that her mother was on her feet and working an art auction days after she had her first surgery for cancer in 1986.

Gardner said her mother majored in English at the University of Washington and never took an art class. "She was completely self-educated," Gardner said.

"She appreciated art and had very definite ideas about what she liked herself," said Joan Johnson, a close friend. "One of her real skills was to see the talents in people and then give them jobs that fulfilled their talents. She was a dedicated, devoted patron of the arts."

In connection with the arts and crafts fair, Mrs. Duke created and developed the Bellevue Film Festival in 1967. She was director of the prestigious festival for 10 years.

She volunteered at Panaca Gallery when it opened in 1961 and served as its president in 1975. She was a founder and member of the board of directors of the Foundation School of Contemporary Art in 1974-75. She was also a founding member of the Miller Freeman Guild of the Bellevue Art Museum.

In 1975, she was appointed to the King County Arts Commission and was its chair in 1980. In 1986, the Bellevue Arts Commission honored her for outstanding support of the arts.

She is survived by her husband, James E. Duke III and their two daughters, Virginia Gardner and Elizabeth Schirmer, and a grandson, Paul Gardner.