Constable, Anne L. (Anne Louise)

Anna (Ann) Russell was born in Osceola, Missouri on October 18, 1923. She moved to Kansas City in 1941. Here she met her future husband, Lelon (Lee) Constable, and they married on January 1, 1942. During World War II, while Lee served in the military, Ann worked for Pratt Whitney as a drill press operator. When the war ended she went to work with Lee in the family business, Constable Bindery. In 1960 the couple became neighbors of Thomas Hart Benton and his family. This began a close personal friendship that lasted until the Benton's deaths in 1975. After working in the bindery for twenty-eight years Ann quit to open her own business, Constable Gallery, Ltd, which dealt in fine arts and collectibles. She had shops in Kansas City, Prairie Village, Kansas, and later in Boca Raton, Florida. Ann handled many pieces by Benton and was considered the foremost authority on his art. When Ann retired in 1991, she continued to be a preeminent broker of his works. After the Benton's deaths, Ann was appointed to the Benton Homestead Commission, which assisted the state in maintaining the Benton home as a state museum. In 1980 Ann co-founded the Benton Foundation, whose purpose it was to place a life-size bronze of Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI). In 1996 the Missouri Department of Natural Resources asked her to form a non-profit foundation to raise money for the Benton house. She founded the Friends of the Benton Home to accomplish this task. Ann and Lee were also original members of the Thomas Hart Benton Associates of KCAI. Ann Constable died on May 24, 2000, at the age of seventy-six.

From the description of Ann Constable collection, 1931-1989. (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art). WorldCat record id: 499188952