James Alexander Graham (1989)

DEWITT, FONS, GRAHAM, LITTLE, THORSON

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 3/8/2006 at 10:38:30

The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
March 8, 1989

JAMES A. GRAHAM, Norwalk

Memorial services for James Graham, who died March 6, 1989, at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, will be held in Norwalk and Winterset on Monday, March 13. The Norwalk service will be at 10:30 a.m. at Norwalk Christian Church. Winterset service will be at 2:00 p.m. at the First Christian Church. Interment of Mr. Graham's ashes will take place privately at a later date.

Mr. Graham was born in Madison County in 1921 and grew up here, graduating from Winterset High School in 1940. After serving in the U. S. Navy in World War II, he attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago and the Kendall School of Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was an art director for the Memeough Advertising Agency in Des Moines, but then became interested in commercial exhibit design. He worked in this field in Kansas City, Houston and Des Moines during his career.

Mr. Graham was married to Dorothy Little in St. Louis, Missouri in 1946. Their three children are James L. Graham of El Paso, Texas, David R. Graham of Melbourne, Florida, and Marianne Fons of Winterset.

Mr. Graham turned to sketching and painting for relaxation in the 1960s. His pencil and ink drawings and watercolor paintings have received awards in Iowa and elsewhere. Twice his drawings were chosen for the Annual Iowa Artists Exhibition. A watercolor of Madison County covered bridge was the cover of a 1969 Wallace's Farmer, and another of his paintings was chosen for the 1970 Northwestern Bell Appointment Calendar. A high honor was being named one of the first fourteen "signature artists" in the new Iowa Watercolor Society in 1981.

He was a member of the Winterset Art Center, the Associated Artists of Central Iowa, Iowa Artists Equity, Des Moines Saturday Sketch Club and the Des Moines Art Center. He was an Elder Emeritus of the First Christian Church in Norwalk and designed the stained glass windows in that church's sanctuary.

Mr. Graham was preceded in death by his parents, Mary and Zeller Graham of Winterset, and his sister, Katherine De Witt, who died December 20. Survivors include his wife, Dorothy Graham of Norwalk, his children, his sister Evelyn Thorson of Loveland, Colorado, and five grandchildren

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