NOVELLI, Alice: Died 1981

NOVELLI, DUCKWORTH

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 6/14/2021 at 18:29:07

**Handwritten: L?? Rec. 17 Dec. 1981

ALICE NOVELLI

Alice Novelli, former Bentonsport resident, died Friday in Victoria, Texas where she had lived for he last year and a half with a sister, Helen Duckworth. The funeral and burial were in Ames.

Mrs. Novelli was a well-known weaver and frequently conducted spinning and weaving classes. She taught fiber arts in the Ames school system and established a weaving shop in the Octagon Art Center in Ames.

She purchased a home and moved to Bentonsport in 1975 where she was instrumental in opening a Van Buren County arts and crafts shop in the Odd Fellows Hall. She managed and staffed the shop single handedly for several years and arranged for frequent arts and crafts exhibits there.

When Mrs. Novelli moved to Bentonsport she brought with her two sheep which she sheared for wool to spin yarn. Her ambition, in addition to advancing an understanding of fiber arts, was to help preserve Bentonsport as a national treasure and to establish an artists and craftsman colony there. Ill health forced her to move to Texas.

She started her career as a teacher of bilingual children in Texas and discovered through the arts the children could express themselves and more easily learn English.

She taught art in Texas and Arizona and started weaving and spinning her own threads. She held a BA in institutional management from Iowa State University in Ames and an MA in fine arts from Women's University at Denton, Texas.

A memorial service will be held during 9 a.m. worship service Sunday in the Bentonsport Methodist Church which she attended. A mirror with stained glass morning glories from the Novelli home will be donated as a memorial to the church. A memorial fund has been established for the Bentonsport garden, in care of the Bentonsport Arts and Crafts Alliance fund in the Farmers State Bank in Keosauqua.

Source: "Scrapbook 1981 - 1985", Pg. 18, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, Van Buren Co., IA