April 12, 2021 | St. Lucie Cultural Alliance | Member Spotlight – Doretha Hair Truesdell
Contributed by Dorothy Kamm
Member Spotlight – Doretha Hair Truesdell
It was a tragedy and a bus ride that brought Doretha Hair Truesdell from West Virginia to Fort Pierce. Doretha, who was 16 years old, had recently graduated high school when her father killed her mother in June 1959. She and her siblings came to Fort Pierce to join an older sister and an aunt, who took in the family.
Doretha met Alfred Hair shortly after her arrival and they started hanging out together. That August Doretha got a job working at a bus station located one block from artist Beanie Backus’s studio. Alfred was a student of Beanie’s. Doretha would walk there when on break to visit. “I fell in love with painting, watching Alfred and Beanie create idyllic landscapes,” says Doretha. “I was in awe of the process and the beauty of the artwork. It was all so magical,” she adds.
Doretha and Alfred became inseparable. Eventually, Doretha went to college at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, majoring in business. Alfred went to Tallahassee, too, finding a house for them in which to live. After graduation, they came back to Fort Pierce and started a family.
As Alfred’s art career was blossoming, later known as one of the organizers of the Florida Highwaymen artists, Doretha taught full-time in local elementary schools. After work, she assisted him by painting frames he made from discarded crown molding and prepping the Upson boards he used as a canvas. They moved into a house on Dunbar Street, off Avenue D, in October 1965. A year later they extended and enclosed the patio to make a studio. Here, Alfred could create more pictures utilizing an assembly line style of painting. To speed the process of creating a finished piece, Alfred then taught Doretha how to paint, beginning with backgrounds.
In 1969 Doretha resigned from teaching to work with Alfred full-time. While Doretha painted backgrounds that Alfred would enhance, she also created between 75 and 100 finished paintings under her own name. These paintings were sold alongside Alfred’s. “Alfred had four salespeople who traveled south to Fort Lauderdale to sell his paintings and mine, too,” says Doretha.
The Hairs had a very successful business when everything came to a sudden standstill. Alfred was 29 years old when he was tragically killed. Doretha became a widow at 27 years old, left to care for four children. She became a teacher again.
Doretha stayed in Fort Pierce until 1978. “Alfred and I had planned to move to the Fort Lauderdale area because that’s where the sales were,” says Doretha. By this time, Doretha needed a change, so she finally relocated in Fort Lauderdale. She met her second husband there, whom she married in 1980. They moved to New Jersey because of his job. Doretha left teaching to work for Federal Express. When she retired as a customer service manager in 2010 she thought she would travel. However, her nephew called to tell her that the house she owned with Alfred was in poor condition. She needed to come back to fix it up.
“Coming back into the house, stepping foot inside, brought back many painful memories,” says Doretha. But beyond that pain, she could hear Alfred telling her she could paint again. So, she picked up a brush and began to create colorful canvases of Florida landscapes and ocean scenes.
Doretha dresses in outfits as colorful as her paintings. “I love color,” she says. The colors of her paintings and her clothing are fully saturated hues that exude energy. “I look to the sky for inspiration,” says Doretha. “There are so many colors, so many purples, blues and greens. The colors may be fleeting, but I try to capture when I paint,” she adds.
Doretha’s oil paintings are created from memory. The sky sets the tone for a painting. Her landscapes capture the beauty and feel of old Florida before development cut down so many Royal poinciana, jacaranda and other types of trees. She also paints ocean scenes; the movement of the water is entrancing to her. There is so much energy in her paintings “because they are created with love,” says Doretha. Much emotion emanates from her brilliantly colored artworks – art too beautiful to stay hidden.
“I found peace in painting again,” says Doretha. Her life came full circle.
Doretha joined the St. Lucie Cultural Alliance after reading about its activities and the artists featured in its online newsletter. She wanted to associate with the artists and learn about their viewpoints. “I wanted to be part of the community,” she says.
To learn more about the St. Lucie Cultural Alliance and the benefits of membership, please visit ArtStLucie.org, email: info@artstlucie.org or call 772-462-2783.
To contact Doretha Hair Truesdell, email her at dhair@aol.com 609-529-4990.