A passion for life and learning exemplified the short career of one of the best American portrait artists of recent times. Florence McNeil Hardy started from the Kansas plains and, by her college days, was developing into an extraordinarily talented artist, winning an international competition while in college. She continued training at the Kansas City Art Institute and at the prestigious Art Student’s League of New York, finally settling in Monahans, Texas, where most of her portraits were done. Her portraits won first place and/or best of show at major exhibitions all over the United States. Many of her paintings, including some that won exhibits, “Jane’s Stormy,” ”Asyrian,” “Kellen’s Child,” “Dark Canyon,” and “Adeline Kennard” and others, have not been found. And, there is a mystery about her painting, “Girl in Pink”; who is she? Retirement brought Florence and her family to northwestern Arkansas, settling at Winton Springs in Pea Ridge. Florence did only six landscapes in Arkansas, all at our new home at Winton Springs; there are no portraits known from her brush after leaving Texas. About a year later on her wedding anniversary, April 15, 1955, Florence died of a massive heart attack.
