Paintings by Robert Baird in the late 1950s
Note: this exhibit is also on display at the museum in our Anne Hall Gallery.
Robert Baird was born in Portland in 1913. He showed an interest in art at a young age and went to Morgan Dean Art Institute in Oakland, California, to study commercial art. He also took classes at the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco.
During the WW2 his three brothers were in the service and he worked seven years at Bethlehem Steel in San Francisco. After the war he and his wife, Dorothy, moved to Delake where his sister lived. Robert did many different jobs, primarily as a carpenter. He became a businessman, starting the Cozy Cove Motel and a service station in Delake.
Robert was active at the Delake Art Center, which is now called the Pacific Artists’ Coop next to the Cultural Center. These portraits were painted by Robert while taking a portrait painting class taught by renowned artist, Maude Wanker. The folks that came in to model were some of the local personalities around town. In the gallery below you will find information and newspaper articles on each model that Robert painted in the late 1950s. These portraits are also on display at the museum in our Anne Hall Gallery. This online exhibit also includes four portraits of unidentified women also painted by Robert Baird. Please let us know if you recognize any of these unidentified portraits. Click to enlarge each portrait and associated images.
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Douglas Emlong by Robert Baird
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Obituary, Douglas Emlong, 6/10/80
This is the tribute article in the Oregonian for Douglas in 1980. He was an amazing armature paleontologist who tragically died at a young age. -
Betty Lantz by Robert Baird
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Betty Lantz in her 1961 Taft High School Yearbook Photo.
We could not find a lot of information about Betty, but found this yearbook photo from 1961 when she was a junior at Taft High School. Her father, Jim Lantz, owned an auto parts store in town. She was married and her last name became “Ho” and lived in Hawaii. She passed away in 1992. -
Lennart Benson by Robert Baird
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Lennart Benson Articles
We couldn’t find much information on Lennart, but do know that he and his wife Bea owned an insurance agency in Delake in the 1950s, he was an accountant, and a member of the Lions Club. In 1960 he became Justice of the Peace in North Lincoln County, and in 1962, according to these News Guard articles, was sentenced to three years on each of the two counts of forgery, the two sentences to run concurrently. -
Eldora Bruce by Robert Baird
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Obituary, Eldora Bruce, 11/8/79
Eldora Bruce’s Store, which opened in 1952 in Delake, is described below by Lynn Baird Yoffee in the Pioneer History of North Lincoln County, Volume 3, Part 2. “In the building which is now an antique shop, as you turn with your back to the highway, the left-hand side of it was a variety store owned by Scott and Eldora Bruce. The Bruces, when I was about six, looked about eighty, but I realize now they must have been about sixty. They sold school supplies. You could buy underwear and slips and tablecloths there, some foodstuffs, paper products, toys - a real, real variety score. And that corner was also the bus stop to Delake Elementary School. So everybody walked up the road and gathered around the Bruces, and she was always very welcoming, always had the Store open for kids who wanted to buy candy bars or anything like that.” -
Raymond Lacey by Robert Baird
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Doll Museum Owned by the Laceys
Raymond Lacey and his wife, Hazel, are known for their doll museum in Wecoma. Tucker’s Place opened in 1947 and displayed over 2,000 antique dolls. Raymond and Hazel Lacey purchased it in 1950 and it was renamed Lacey’s Doll Museum. Lacey’s doll collection became one of the largest in the nation, growing to over 4,000 dolls. Lacey’s Doll Museum was one of Wecoma’s favorite tourist attractions and her dolls and other collectibles were on display for over 30 years. When Hazel Lacey passed away, some of her dolls were donated to the North Lincoln County Historical Museum and many were sold at auction with proceeds (200,000 dollars) going to the Shriner`s Hospital for Crippled Children. -
Obituary, Raymond Lacey, 11/6/80
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Eleanor Kramer by Robert Baird
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Obituary 1/2, Eleanor Kramer, 6/1/16
A tribute article for Taft`s outstanding community member Eleanor Kramer in the News Guard in June 2016. Eleanor`s Undertow still continues to be a landmark establishment to this day. -
Obituary 2/2, Eleanor Kramer, 6/1/16
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Russell Sellers by Robert Baird
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Sellers Purchases Caley Electric, 9/15/55
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Kay Stone by Robert Baird
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Poem by Kay, 7/31/69
We could not find any information on Kay besides this poem that won a poetry contest that was announced in the News Guard on July 31, 1969. This poem is about The Fleet of Flowers, a Memorial Day celebration that still takes place in Depoe Bay to this day. -
Woody Sax by Robert Baird
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Obituary, Woody Sax, 5/10/89
Jane Fuller Sax on her husband`s work career, which highlights the difficulty during the depression era, in the Pioneer History of North Lincoln County, Volume 3, Part 2. “Woody didn`t have a trade. He worked as a farm hand over at Neskowin when Allen, our first child, was little. It was the Depression. He worked for his uncle cutting wood. Then he got a job working at the garage at Otis. Guy Griswold, Del Fraser`s brother-in-law, had the garage. Then a Chevrolet mechanic who learned at the Chevrolet place in Detroit, worked there. Woody worked with him and learned to be a mechanic. That`s what he did the rest of his life. He worked at Otis and then at Oceanlake at the shop there, and at Oceanlake Sand and Gravel as mechanic on the trucks. Then he had a heart attack and couldn`t do heavy mechanic work anymore. He delivered OREGONIAN newspapers, and worked in a parts store.” -
Vivian Reed by Robert Baird
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Robin and Vivian Reed
Vivian is pictured here with her husband, Robin, who won a gold medal for wrestling in the 1924 Paris Olympics. -
Obituary, Vivian Reed, 1/17/01
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Unidentified Portrait by Robert Baird
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Unidentified Portrait by Robert Baird
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Unidentified Portrait by Robert Baird
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Unidentified Portrait by Robert Baird
