Elizabth Muhlenber Brooke Blake

BLAKE, Elizabeth Muhlenberg Brooke, born April 25, 1916, in Philadelphia, PA, lived every one of her 100 years before passing away on Aug. 8, 2016, at her summer home in Newport, RI. The daughter of George Brooke Jr. and Titanic survivor Lucille Polk Carter Brooke of Birdsboro, PA. Mrs. Blake, known as Betty or Boop to her devoted friends, developed a lifelong passion for art after being sent to Paris to study at Madame Chapons school. On her thrice-weekly visits to the Louvr, she fell in love with 18th- and 19th-century works, which led her to explore and begin collecting contemporary art. Mrs. Blake became a dynamic force in the art world, opening the first modern-art gallery in Texas, the Betty McLean Gallery, in 1951, and serving as a trustee, president and chairman of the board of the American Federation of Arts. Mrs. Blake also served as a commissioner to the National Museum of American Art, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A longtime trustee of the Dallas Museum of Art and member of the Texas Commission on the Arts, she also served on the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worths acquisitions board for over five decades and was considered a major factor in the success of the Fort Worth Circle artistic movement. While in London, Mrs. Blake became a Christian Scientist; she remained a follower throughout her life. She is survived by daughter Joan Reeves Lapham and son-in-law Lewis Lapham, of New York, sons Thomas Blake of Newport, Douglas and daughter-in-law Diane Grodin Blake of Dallas; grandchildren Andrew Polk Lapham (Caroline Mulroney Lapham) of Toronto, Ontario; Principessa Delphina Lapham Boncompagni Ludovisi (Prince Bante Boncompagni Ludovisi) of Rome, Italy; Winston Lapham of New York; Elizabeth Brooke Blake of Newport; Matthew Walter Blake (Courtney Brennan Blake) of Spicewood, TX; Justin Douglas Blake (Jentri Clay Blake) of Brenham, TX; and Thomas Andrew Blake of Austin, TX, and Crested Butte, Colo.; and 11 great-grandchildren.She was preceded in death by her beloved son, Wilton Phipps. A private burial will take place in Newport, RI. Memorial donations may be made to the Hope Hospice of RI, 1085 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02904, ASPCA, 424 E. 92nd Street, New York, NY 10128-6804 or The Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI 02840.