Mary Heussenstamm

1930 - 2005

Mary Heussenstamm, well-known watercolor portraitist and longtime resident of La Crescenta, passed away Feb. 25 of complications from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. She was 75.

Mary was born Feb. 8, 1930, in Colton. Her mother was on a train when she went into labor and had to be rushed off the train to the hospital for the birth.

Mary grew up in the Claremont area. Her mother died when Mary was 13 and she was sent to boarding school.

In her early 20s, Mary met George Heussenstamm, a musician and composer who took her to hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for their first date. They were married for 47 years, first living in Altadena, then moving to La Crescenta in 1973.

Mary earned an associate’s degree from Pasadena City College, then went on to California State University, Los Angeles, where she received a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She worked as a registered nurse for the county health department for some years before turning to private duty nursing, a field in which she excelled. As a nurse, she would often do pencil drawings of her patients, which were excellent, even though she had no formal training in art.

At the age of 59, Mary retired and devoted the rest of her life to watercolor portraiture. Mary specialized in multiethnic portraits, which she painted primarily on location, where her subjects worked and lived. She was known for her ability to portray exceptional depth and emotion in her subjects with a unique painting style.

She had numerous one-woman shows in museums and libraries in Southern and Central California. Her first book, “Multiethnic Water-color Portraits,” was released in 1994, and “Watercolor Portraits Painted on the Streets of Los Angeles” was published in September 2000. A 30-minute video of her paintings has been widely shown on local public access television stations.

Some 66 of Heussen-stamm’s portraits hang in Shatford Library at Pasadena City College and 17 paintings are on exhibit in the main hallway of the Pasadena Senior Center at 85 E. Holly St.

She was chosen Artist of the Year 1994 by the Pasadena Arts Council and was Pasadena Art Alliance’s Artist-in-Residence at PCC that same year. Mary gave more than 70 lectures for art associations, libraries and museums throughout California and donated more than 300 of her books to the libraries of colleges and universities across the United States that offer degrees in fine arts.

She is survived by her husband, George, 78, of La Crescenta; her sister Patricia Fallandy of Canoga Park, and four nieces and nephews.