Maples, Barbara, 1912-1999

Barbara Lucile Maples (1912-1999) was born on November 11, 1912, in Temple, Texas. Her parents were L.B. (Leslie Buford) Maples and Lucile Beatrice Hartrick Maples (from Belton and Temple, Texas). An artist and professor of art, Maples graduated from Temple High School in 1929 and went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas in 1933 and a Master of Arts degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York in 1939. She did further study with Lawrence Barrett at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (in the Summers of 1943-1945) and Carlotta Corpron at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas. Maples taught at public schools in Temple and Fort Worth in the 1930s before joining the teaching staff of the Dallas Independent School District, where she taught elementary and secondary art from 1937-1964. She concurrently taught children's art classes at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts School from 1940-1954 and served as an art instructor at the Cimarroncita Camp for Girls in Ute Park, New Mexico from 1939-1949. From 1965-1978 she was Professor and Head of the Department of Art Education at Southern Methodist University. After retiring from the University in 1978, she served as administrator of the Greater Southwest Fine Arts Project for Limestone, Freestone, and Leon counties.